Naruto Gokan
by goNxH
Summary: All he could see was her dark hair clashing with the milky white of her skin, all he could smell was her scent, all he could feel was her body pressed close to his, all he could taste was her creamy skin and all he could hear was her voice whispering words of comfort.
1. Preface

**The story was previously named: Because...**

**This is not a part of the story...it is what inspired me to do the story. Also I like to explain why I chose my couples. I'll only explain my main reasons for liking the couple of ****Naruto**** and ****Hinata****.  
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**I don't own Naruto nor Naruto Shippuuden.  
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When I read the reasons some people thought why they support Naruhina or hate Naruhina I started to think about my own reasons. I mean I knew I liked the thought of Naruto and Hinata, but why did I choose them over Naruto and Sakura?

Some of the things Naruhina fans state a just ridiculous and I found myself unable to relate to it. For example I read example that it is a good reason for Naruto to be with Hinata because (and I quote) "Hinata loved Naruto the longest." … Well I get what you want to say but I don't think it counts as a valid reason. Just because you saw something first doesn`t mean it belongs to you, it's not like she called dibs on him or something. Worst of all the argument can be turned around easily because Naruto was also into Sakura since the academy...so there goes that reasons.

Even worse was when I read that Naruto should be with Hinata because she has bigger breast. …Okaaaay, as "sufficient" as that argument is, I don't really think that it as ANYTHING to do with the topic. Naruto called Hinata plain after all, so you may want to rethink the "who has the better looks" discussion because there drawn characters, I don't think we can measure that. And even if, I for once don't like pink hair, but it's really in the eye of the beholder isn't it?

I also didn't like the Hinata deserves him more argument. Sure she has done a lot for him, but he should feel something for her too, don't you think. He isn't some price you can work for and earn it.

This is basically the reason I want to add this. A lot of the things I say here you can later find in the story, so I want to let you know what I thought when I wrote it.

Ok first of all, I won't deny that Naruto never showed ANY romantic interest in Hinata whatsoever, so until the manga indicates otherwise I refuse to believe that he has completely moved on from Sakura. I include the Manga 615 in that, because that was a symbolic gesture nothing more and nothing less. However that doesn't matter too me, because Sakura may be what Naruto wanted and (until further notice) still wants, but in my opinion Hinata is what he needs. Even if he`s may not seeing it.

Naruto always wanted to become Hokage. He also said why he wanted it, he wanted to be accepted by everyone, he wanted to be looked up to, he wanted to be acknowledged and loved.

What he didn't realize however was that Hinata was already doing exactly that for him. She already saw something in him others are just beginning to figure out: Inspiration. She was the first person Naruto inspired before Iruka or Sasuke or everyone else. He touched her heart, he changed her, he saver her. And not by intercepting a kunai for her, he did all that for her just by being who he is. He impressed Hinata not with some flashy jutsu or a gigantic rasengan, because he didn't need to. Hinata was able to do what no one else could, seeing what he could be, seeing behind his goofiness and let´s be honest denseness.

Of course one could argue that Naruto didn't actually benefit from that. Hinata never approached him herself. She could see his suffering and just stood by it and watched. That is true but considering her background it is not surprising.

Hinata comes from a very traditional clan. All her life she has been told what is right from wrong, what she is supposed to believe in and what she is supposed to do, how she should behave and how she should be. So with all the pressure on her, she was too afraid to do something wrong. Probably thinking it would be better to do nothing than to make a mistake, like she made so many at home. Plus all those times being called a failure and unworthy by her own father probably didn't help matters. Maybe Hinata thought she wasn't good enough and feared Naruto would reject her. So it's only natural she doesn't approach him she's just as afraid of rejection as he is.

Naruto has been looked down and hated by others as a kid. But so has Hinata not from everyone and much less obvious, but her own family did that to her. People who are supposed to love you no matter what. I´m not trying to make Naruto´s childhood look like a piece of cake, I am merely trying to explain why Hinata didn't approach Naruto. It doesn't make it any better and I still think she was wrong by not helping him, but I can understand where she came from.

Still you have to give her credit for not listening to all the people saying Naruto was someone to stay away from because she didn't. So unlike most, she admired him despite of everyone telling her he was someone to hate.

Basically Hinata is what Naruto needs **because she can make him feel everything he ever wanted to fell** without having to constantly prove his worth to her. She would be a constant reminder of how he can inspire and change people to the better. By looking at her Naruto can see all the approval, admiration and love he has ever longed for.

Some call Hinata a creepy stalker. I can understand that position.

But looking at it from another point of view opens up another reason why she would always watch him. I have already stated how I explain why she didn't approach him. Hinata watched Naruto, because she needed to learn from him and she knew it.

Hinata was twelve, somehow I doubt she was trying to peak on him naked. Besides she wasn't in love with him back then, she admired him and probably had a crush on him, but I have a hard time picturing her already loving him.

Hinata needed to watch him because as explained earlier she was too much of a coward to actually talk to him. By watching Naruto she learned about him and how to stand up for herself. Hinata probably hoped she could try to be like him in a difficult situation. To never give up was also something she learned from him.

I also think Hinata would be good for Naruto, because she is the first person he voluntarily showed his weak side to, as far as we know. Before the last part of the Chunin exams he met Hinata at the training posts and he let his guard down in front of her, fully aware that she could hurt him and break his spirits even more. Yet, he trusted her enough to take the risk.

I think this is an astonishing thing to do for someone who, like Naruto, was always told to give up and that he wasn't good enough. Somehow it seems like he knew back then that she wouldn't use it against him.

In any future relationship it will be essential for Naruto to allow himself to be weak. When he will become Hokage, it would mean that he will not be allowed to show weakness at all and will have to make difficult decisions that could lead to people's death.

I can see him coming home to Hinata and just being able to relax, to sit down, not getting screamed at for being late and eat some homemade Ramen.

Also I think another thing Naruto needs is someone who is honest with him, without hurting him with her words. It was very well shown in Manga 615, where Hinata managed to get him back. Someone who is able to take is flaws and turns them into strength with her words. This is just what she did before the Chunin exams. Hinata is a person that would be able to say exactly what he needed to hear.

Also she would always listen to him first without interrupting. Just sitting next to him and wait till he is ready to spill. Naruto may not be the fastest thinker but by telling his problems to someone who would give him all the time he needs to form the words and encourage him. Maybe then he could figure out some of the answers himself.

Hinata was able to find the right words for him twice already, to embrace his weakness and turn it to strength instead of telling him to suck it up. I can't think of anyone better to say the right words for him when he needs comfort.

Being allowed to show weakness and at the same time not feeling weak, knowing she still thinks he is the best person she knows, being listened to and get told what he needs to hear without just always agreeing with him.

**He needs to be loved not despite of his flaws but because of them**.

Hinata seems like someone who doesn't judge people based on her own experience of being the object of prejudges. So no matter what rumors are there, Naruto could come to her and tell her his side of the story without having to fear looking into biased and accusing eyes.

I could see him turning up at her doorstep in the middle of the night and Hinata will let him in and make him tea without even asking and just patiently waiting till he wants to talk. Hinata will give him all the time he needs to come up to her with an answer to her confession or if he just wants to rant about old times. She is patient and that's what is missing in his life. She is someone who could understand him by just looking at him, because she did that so many years.

Strangely enough she gets criticized because she jumped in between Naruto and Nagato. Some say she was going to make him watch her getting killed. Of course that is true, but at least Hinata did something to help him.

It's funny that in the first episodes everyone talks about how important team work is, but when it comes down to it, everyone just fights the important fights on their own instead of working together, I am grateful that now in the war it is different.

Hinata jumped in fully aware that she was going to die, that's why she told him "I´m just being selfish." She wanted Naruto to know he is not to blame.

Hinata was well aware he had no idea how she feels about him, so she told him she came on her own free will to help him, as some sort of thank-you for how he unknowingly helped her. It is the first time she acts on her feelings regardless of what her clan thought of her. He helped her free herself in more ways than one.

It seems like Naruto doesn't care about Hinata since he never talked about her confession, not to her and not to anyone else. That strikes me as really weird and out of character.

If an unknown person had jumped in between, everyone would have expected a thank you at least.

Just look back to the fist arc, the Zabusa Haku thing, he told Zabusa exactly that. It is out of character for Naruto not to acknowledge someone who almost died for him or supported him in any way, for that matter.

I don't expect him to return her feelings that wouldn't be good character development, but I do expect Naruto to thank her or talk to her about it at some point. Even if I think that it is wrong, considering his character that he waited so long.

And now that he knows about her feelings maybe he will start to **see** her, literally see her, as in acknowledge her existence. And only then there is a possibility to gain feelings for her. Naruto simply didn't see her before. Sure he knew Hinata existed but he never gave her a second thought, now he will and who knows where that leads him.

Naruto has matured a lot, and he's starting to reconsider many things he once thought of as facts. You can only love what you see and acknowledge, and now he does know her feelings.

Some people say Naruto needs someone stronger and since Hinata is weak that cannot work out.

Hinata may be the weakest of the Konoha twelve and granted Sakura is physically stronger than Hinata. I still don't get how that is important in a relationship?

I highly doubt Naruto´s girlfriend would have to worry about defending herself from him. Besides I think Naruto needs to be needed. Not necessarily physically but in some form.

This is really just considered the fact that he is a male, and I think that they like to be able to protect what the care for and able to be their significant others hero.

Naruto needs to know that his partner needs him as much as he needs is probably important for him to have someone in his life, who can take care of herself, both Hinata and Sakura are able to. That doesn't mean Naruto needs someone who can beat him up.

Naruto needs someone he can find peace with, let go and just be himself.

Sakura´s "attacks" on him may have lessened but then again they spend significant less time together than they used to. And opposed to what some people seem to think she did not always hit him for a reason, if a reason for a reaction like that exist at all. I believe Naruto has had enough violence in his life and he doesn't need it in his home.

Naruto has been shoved away all his life so what he needs now is someone who would never do that to him. He isn't especially smart or a fast thinker, he is a prankster and a bit goofy, it is just part of his character.

Hinata will perhaps often be embarrassed by his action and not always happy with his way to react but she wouldn't hit him or shove him away. Even the slap she gave him in chapter 615, was mellowed by her hand taking the pain away with stroking his cheek.

He will say something inappropriate or something that isn't particular smart from time to time because what would Naruto be without the usual sweat-drop moment.

What he needs then is one face in the crowd that doesn't look disapproving but encouraging like "Ok that was not the best way to put it. Just try again I know this time you're gonna get it right". Because Naruto often needs a second try and he is not gonna stop saying not so smart things.

Imagine what kind of picture it would paint if the Hokage constantly gets beaten up from his wife for being himself. If Naruto's and Sakura's roles would be reversed and Naruto would beat Sakura for doing something he's not pleased about, that would be called abuse. I´m not a big fan of this anime cliché and the implied violence but if people like it…

There was this one comment I read about Sakura being able to keep Naruto in line. What is he? A dog?

Being a little slow outside of the battle field is part of his character and not supposed to change.

Who says Hinata isn't able to cool him down? Again look at the manga 615, it shows a lot of what I'm trying to say.

If he should to something that will upset Hinata, he will feel horrible and apologize, Hinata will tell him what he did wrong, he will apologize again, she will forgive him and Naruto is gonna get it right next time.

He isn't someone who will always get it right at first so he needs someone who can tell him where he went wrong in a sweet "I still love you" way.

Naruto once said that Hinata was a "dark, shy weirdo" and as far as I can tell nothing really changed about his opinion.

Though I never got the dark part, I mean sure she is quiet but does that equals dark? Maybe that is something he will later discover he was wrong about. No one can deny that Hinata is shy, it´s part of her personality and the reason why she doesn't fit in her own clan.

So in one way or another she used to be just as lonely as Naruto. One of the reasons she can see behind his mask and understands him, he wants to be accepted by the village and she wants to be the same from her family.

Naruto also always wanted Sakura to accept him but Hinata wanted the same from him, now if that isn't bound to make him feel good and comfortable with himself the way he always was, I don't know what will.

About the weirdo: I can of course only speak for myself but I really don't see that as a bad thing. Hinata is different in every way, from the people in her family, from the other girls and even from the other shinobi. I think she still needs to find her way, because for now she´s way to fixated on Naruto.

Besides that can anyone give me an example for a Naruto character that isn't somehow weird? I personaly think I am very weird so it's not a bad thing for me.

Naruto called Hinata plain at some point, I said that earlier. She was 12, people change and even if she is plain, I refuse to believe Naruto falls in love for looks only. Hinata is on her way to find out who she is and if the female characters would be more developed it would be a surprise not only for Hinata but also for Sakura and the others. Her father is right when he says Hinata is too kind to be a shinobi and too insecure.

Hinata used to stutter and blush and pull the occasionally faint especially around Naruto. So people believe she isn't suited for a relationship with such an outgoing character. Hinata was in a team with KIBA so she probably has some experience with public attention and/or embarrassment. Also part of her stuttering and blushing is due to the fact that Naruto had no idea how she felt and that caused her to be extra cautions around him and feeling pressured into seeming normal and look pretty and being someone he could like.

But now he knows of her feelings, so Hinata got rid of one of the things pressuring her. When Naruto saved her during the war she didn't faint or seemed too flustered. If she would get to know him better and spend more time with him she would gradually learn to relax, because her fear of not being accepted would cease. And that is something that kept her from approaching him sooner, something he could teach her and get to know her better.

Naruto would see how he is able to change people and make them more confident right before his eyes, knowing he is the cause of her change. And Hinata can help him getting calmer and not to act first and think later.

He is gonna need some manners as Hokage and Hinata would be patient enough to teach him. He would realize that it is ok not to get something right immediately and could learn without having to watch every move out of fear to get a good beating. Naruto says a lot of unwise things without realizing it.

His character has matured a lot but he will still have a lot of energy. Yet, at the end of a day he needs to be able to go home to a peaceful place where someone waits for him, calms him down and listens to him patiently. And Hinata needs someone who will tell her to embrace her needs and wishes to and give her confidence to achieve it, someone who can get her to open up and have some fun from time to time.

If anything the fact that Hinata isn't one of the main characters in the show is more of a plus than the other way round. Naruto isn't a romance story, its adventure which the pairings are never going to be focused no matter how important it would be for him personally.

Naruto has always been alone even if he has friends now, but he is still lonely, therefore for him to know someone sees him as his family and loves him, should be more important for an orphan than anything else. It´s the reason he can´t let go of Sasuke because he sees him as family.

Also I think the pairing between Naruto and Hinata would have some interesting possibilities too. Just think about the whole Hyuga clan and the cursed seal thing which is one of the first promises of Naruto I can remember. Alone due to that promise Hinata and Naruto will have to talk in the future since there not many main Hyuga clan members who are in favor of an abolishment as far as I can tell.

A very general opinion is that Hinata´s life revolves around Naruto because every time she is shown she's all about him. Well that would make sense, why else would she be shown, the show is called Naruto. What I think is interesting that most of the times Hinata interacts with him, it has some sort of significance for his life.

Hinata wants to become stronger because of Naruto but it was never said it was the only reason. She wants to impress Naruto and her father and she wants to stop being a burden to her team.

However the problem is everything she does, she does for others sake not for her own, given a free choice I doubt Hinata would have wanted to be a kunoichi. She did it because she had to, but it just may is not her path.

After the war who knows what will change. Hinata needs to find something that gives her a drive on her own, something she is good at and then we will see her potential. As for now she is too fixated on Naruto.

Naruto is still into Sakura but I asked myself why he fell for her in the first place and found my very own explanation.

Whenever Naruto thinks about Sakura his thoughts immediately drift to Sasuke, he can´t think about her without it somehow involving Sasuke. It is like he connected them in his head. Naruto sees Sasuke as his rival and brother wants to be like him respectively better than him. Naruto wants what Sasuke has, and Sasuke has many girls attention. Therefore Naruto might thought if he could win one person over, he could prove to him he was better than Sasuke and the others would follow.

Still it doesn't explain why Sakura over all the other girls, well Naruto said he thought Sakura was very pretty and that's what made her even more unreachable for him. Naruto always wanted what seemed impossible for him: Becoming Hokage, get everyone's respect and acknowledgement, thus he went for the girl he though, he had the smallest chance of winning over.

Besides that, he also could relate to her by finding the same wish inside Sakura for acknowledgement from Sasuke that he feels inside of him.

If he had realized Hinata harbored those feelings for anyone or even beer him, he might had felt a connection forwards her too. But he hasn't seen her yet.

In retro perspective although he will be happy to have someone feel the way he feels/felt about Sakura and Sakura feels about Sasuke, feel about him.

Back to the reason Naruto likes Sakura. Beating Sasuke is unconsciously linked to winning Sakura over.

Additionally it would be hard for Naruto to stop remembering Sasuke every time he looks or thinks about Sakura. It isn't only the promise of a lifetime to her that's a burden to him; it is the link to Sasuke he made in his head without realizing it.

Could he ever look at her and not relate her to Sasuke? Honestly the most important person to him currently is neither Hinata nor Sakura, it's Sasuke. Everything he does is somehow associated with him.

Naruto deserves and **needs to be free **from that weight and that's not something Sakura can give to him.

There is a high possibility you couldn't follow my confused and chaotic logic, therefore feel free to ask me and be critical.

Keep in mind that almost everything stated here does not reflect the current state of the characters it is merely how I picture them in the future. How I assume them to be not how they are. Each and every one my thoughts can be refuted by the manga anytime. If you have other theories please let me know, I'd love to discuss it.

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**Thank you for reading...the next chapter starts with the actual story. **

**For the record...Neji is alive in this story, because I like him and I like coupling and Tenten needs a man.  
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**Also one of the reasons is that I wrote the story before he died.  
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	2. Preface II

**As I told you last time. All the minor Prefaces are now put together in this one.**

**Skip if you don't want to know the pairings to come.**

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**-Lee-**

I was wondering for a long time what kind of person Lee would best be with. And the answer is really simple, I believe that Lee would actually best be with someone who is, or can be, similar to him. He is a very passionate character and I like that about him.

So when I thought about the person he could spend the rest of his life with, I came up empty. Currently in the Naruto series, there is no one suitable for him, in my opinion. However, there a bunch of underdeveloped female characters that have been showed only shortly and their character could go in different directions, though a basis is already made.

I think that Lee would need someone, who could share his optimism and passion, but the woman should also be more observing and smart. Not to say that Lee is dumb, not at all. Similar to Naruto I feel like Lee is just a little too trusting and a teeny tiny bit naïve. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but he would do good to be with someone more perceptive.

Unlike a lot of people, I never found myself disliking Karin all that much, neither was I a big fan of her. While she was with Sasuke I basically thought she was funny in her futile tries to win him over. It was always just a little too much, which made it fun to watch. But I changed my mind about her when she was shown after Konoha caught her and she was in prison.

There was this scene where she was in prison and she was going back and forth about Sasuke. I believe most of the people, thought that she actually meant it, I was not one of those. For me, it looked like she was deceiving the guards so that she could escape. She was planning to make them not take her seriously anymore and maybe ignore all her craziness. And for me that was pretty smart. However that is only my view and of course that manga can prove me wrong any time. I won't change my story, though.

Anyway I think that in my story she is most likely an OC or at least OOC, because no one knows how she really is. I made Lee and her fit together, that that may not be the case with her "real" character…I'll have to take that risk.

Still I do like them together, at least the way I made them. I like Lee and I think he is an awesome character, that deserves to be happy!

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-**Shikamaru-**

Shikamaru is portrait as a lazy guy yet he is a genius, so I guess what he would need is, and the fan base is right here, a woman who would... well, shove her foot in his ass and tell him to get to work. On the other hand she would also need to know when to leave him alone, so any kind of clingy women are out of the game.

Basically that leaves probably only two women, Temari and Ino. Truth be told I can see Shikamaru with both of them, but I also believe there are some reasons that would make it harder for him to be with Ino than with Temari.

While I believe that both women have a lot of similarities there are two different characters. Temari is a rather hard character, not really soft while Ino is more romantic.

Ino and Temari are demanding women, but what makes the difference is how and what they demand. I like both of them and I think they are pretty kick ass women.

Seriously again, I think that Temari demands that Shikamaru gives his best and gets his act straight, I think Ino is more of a woman that would want a guy to give all his attention to her. Again, I like her and that is not a bad thing, I just think that Ino wouldn't be happy with a guy like Shikamaru.

Temari is more straight-forward with what she wants and if she wants him to go on a date with her she would say that, while Ino would just expect him to do so. That on the other hand does not mean that Temari can't become mad without telling him, but I think Ino would explode more often and they would constantly fight. Not to say that Temari and Shikamaru would not fight, but I think that Temari is tougher and would take his careless attitude less personal.

Temari is tougher than Ino when it comes to stand up with a guy. Ino seems like the type of person who would want to be spoiled from her boyfriend, again I don't think that's bad, because I think Ino would also be a little clingier and shower her guy with affection as well, and I believe that that would annoy Shikamaru.

As I said before, Temari strikes me as a woman, who is hard and tough and she could use someone as laid back as Shikamaru who tells her that sometimes it's ok to do nothing and just watch the clouds.

And think a lot of this will be clearer once I argue my Ino pairing, because a lot of what I stated here is correlated to what Ino wants and why Shika is not the right guy for her.

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**-Kiba-**

For me Kiba is a very intense person. I think that his animalistic side is more developed compared to other people. I reason this with the fact that he needs this in order to communicate correctly with Akamaru and to transform into one another.

So his instinct impulse is stronger, which means he needs someone not only willing to accept that, but maybe even willing to participate in it. Yeah, you figured I'm talking about sex…bite me to it.

Considering his strong drive and his dependence on his nature the woman at his sides needs to keep up with him, mentally and physically. Kiba is not the most sensitive person and whoever he is dating will need to know how to date him.

Honestly speaking I think that a person like Sakura would be suited best for him, however there was one thing keeping me from picking her, Sakura is most likely a more uptight person in regards of a physical relationship. Yet, the woman Kiba needs it most likely someone partly similar to her.

Kiba, unlike Naruto, would actually not just take her punches but rather tell her off and defend himself, and unlike Naruto, he may deserve some kind of punch. I'm still not a fan of this kind of thing but you'll hear more about it, when I will talk about the Sakura pairing.

Funny thing is, there is actually one person that somehow resembles Sakura in her temper, yet this woman is still not a fully developed character. That gave me the possibility to form her a little bit, so that she and Kiba fit together.

Karui has a similar, slightly violent temper, so she wouldn't allow Kiba to trample over her and dominate her with his intensity. She is someone who will stand up to him and tell him off. Somehow I can really see those two fitting.

Karui most likely has complexes regarding her body, since she was in a team with Samui, who has rather large chest and being with someone like Kiba who constantly wants her and makes her feel like it, is exactly what she needs.

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-**Neji-**

Neji is a rather introverted character that shows little emotions. He seems to be very strict not only towards others but towards himself as well, he's a perfectionist that barely let's anything slide. So in my opinion he needs someone who is able to make him smile and relax, someone who can teach him to take it easy from time to time.

On the other hand she also would have to be able to keep up with him and willing to do so. Neji would most likely have certain expectations of someone he would date and the woman would then have to show him that there is no need to hold on to something that unimportant.

I think that Tenten is most likely the one female who can do so. Unlike most other kunoichis she barely cares how things make her look like. She's not too girly, so that she would annoy Neji; she has a strong drive that would make her strong-willed enough to oppose him, yet not too tomboyish so that he would compare her to Lee. She is a specialist in her own way and would be able to give Neji a challenge in a spar.

Sadly we don't really know much about Tenten except that she admires Tsunade a lot. It would be good for her to have someone by her side who will keep her focused, while she will force him to take a break from time to time.

What also makes this couple appealing is that they know each other for a long time and are more or less close. Due to that both of them are well aware of the other person's strength and also their weakness.

Neji does strike me as a very proud person who does not admit that he was wrong, but he will do so when he realizes a mistake and Tenten would most likely not be childish enough to use this against him. If he would have to do something that would embarrass him, then she would accept it and move on without making a big fuss about it. She'd let it go and would just pretend it didn't happen, because most likely she would understand how hard it is for him to admit he was wrong and therefore know he really meant it.

I also see Neji as someone who would barely explode or be emotional about it, maybe Tenten could help him to be more open with his feelings even if it is just towards her.

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**-Ino-**

Ino is a very vibrant and temperamental woman. She is kind at heart but nevertheless I think she does come off as rather shallow at first glance. In a relationship I picture Ino as someone who likes to be spoiled, and I don't mean it in a bad way. I think that Ino would be affectionate to the max as well. She would most likely want her boyfriend to shower her with affection because she would do the same thing.

That's precisely why I don't think that Ino and Shikamaru would work out. He would soon be annoyed by her and she wouldn't like the fact that he isn't exactly the most affective guy. I think that Ino would want an attentive man who would take her out and compliment her and I just really can't picture Shikamaru doing that.

The person who would go best with Ino is Chouji in my opinion. He is gentle and cares a lot about his friends. He would be the composed pool in their relationship that would calm her down, when her temper explodes. I really can't remember Ino ever raising her fist against him. I don't doubt that she would scream or throw a fit at him and it wouldn't always be justified, but I also think that Chouji would most likely be the sole male that would know how to take that. Besides Ino would feel guilty after that and make it up to him by spoiling him rotten.

The reason that I believe Chouji would understand Ino the best is because not only are they childhood friends and he knows Ino sometimes says things that she doesn't truly mean everything she blurts out in the spur of the moment, but apart from that his personality is laid back and relaxed in a way different from Shikamaru.

In some ways Chouji is even too laid back and it makes it easy for people to exploit him. If he was with Ino and someone would even attempt to mess with him she'd probably hunt them down and kill them. A relationship with her would help built his self-esteem because I'm guessing that he was always worried about his weight, even though he knows it's important for his Jutsus.

Basically I think a relationship between Chouji and Ino would be very affectionate and they would spent a lot of time together. They balance each other out nicely.

* * *

**-Shino-**

Shino is a character we know very little about. From what I understand Shino is very rational, but also loyal to a high degree. He doesn't get emotional often but his teammates are very important to him as well as his other friends. Shino also has the tendency to be bear grudges, that last for a very long time.

What strikes me as interesting is his passion about his insects. He views them as a part of himself and respects them as his comrades. This point of view is remarkable and likeable about him, because it shows that he has a big heart.

Naturally a traditional girl would most likely not share this opinion. What Shino needs is someone who would rather be fascinated by them, than grossed out. I see such a person also as some sort of scientist.

After going with this approach it was relatively easy to find a suitable partner.

As far as I understood Shiho works for Konoha as some sort of code breaker. She is shown and immediately develops a crush for Shikamaru, caused by the fact that she thinks he's cool.

I don't see Shino making the first move, but I think that for someone who meets him forthe first time he comes of as pretty cool. A crush is nothing serious, it is developed soon and forgotten fast. So if Shiho develops a crush for him, maybe she'll break the ice. Her curiosity about his insects for example.

Since both of them are more or less scientists ( or at least have a scientific approach of things) they would find something to talk about.

Also for a lot of people I think Shino's way of talking can be quite tiring. As for Shiho, well she works as a code breaker so I assume she has a lot of patience. And Shino would be happy to share his passion for bugs.

I think they fit each other well, but I'll be happy to hear your suggestions.

* * *

**-Sakura-**

I don't know if any of you know Ranma ½, but that was what made me think of that pairing. Their relationship is passionate and aggressive, and the important thing is that it comes from both parts. While I usually don't support any type of violence in a relationship I have to admit that from time to time Ranma kind of deserves the punches. Besides while he is not hitting back, he does defend himself and personally I think he enjoys making her mad.

That's the kind of relationship I see Sakura in. She's stubborn and has problems to admit her true feelings, because of her past experience with Sasuke. She was in love with him for most part of her life and whatever guy can make her move on, that's the one for me.

Someone who won't treat her like she's a porcelain doll that can break any moment, but instead takes her seriously. All she wanted throughout Naruto was to be accepted as a great kunoichi and not left behind.

And as I said I could see her in a relationship with someone who enjoys to make her mad, but is there for her every time she needs it. Someone who can make her laugh and forget about Sasuke.

I stated in the Kiba pairing, that I think they would be acceptable, but not perfect. So I designed a character that fits her in that way. I choose Kankuro, because the distance between him and the leaf would help her move on and their past could make him interested in her.

She could keep him interested because Sakura has many façades to herself that she barely shows. She can be very strong one moment and vulnerable in the next, and Kankuro would have to learn to adapt to it and that would help him get deeper in a relationship, instead of pursuing a shallow one.

The reason I'm not a fan of Sakura and Sasuke is because I don't see them in an equal relationship. She will always be the fangirl and he will always have the upper hand, because she just can't seem to go against him. Also Sasuke seems to be annyoed at her most of the time and she would have to spend the whole relationship trying to be someone she's not, just to please him.

* * *

**Well that's that.**

**Any questions or suggestions?**

**Let me know what you think**


	3. Preface III

**Skip if you don't want to know the pairing.**

**I do not own Naruto**.

* * *

Let's start off with this: There is absolutely no indication whatsoever in any way that would even slightly point in this direction. Just telling you that I am very well aware of that fact. I picked Hanabi to end up with Gaara. The manga gives no information about her, so in my story I guess she is designed like an OC, specifically designed for Gaara. Whatever I will write about her is purely made up and is not based on the manga. Of course there would be the obvious pick for Gaara: Matsuri but I'll explain why I decided against her later.

Gaara's childhood was characterized by death and neglect. He grew up hated and feared by his own family and the person he was closest to tried to kill him and ultimately betrayed him. That by now he knows the truth about his mother and that she loved him, does not change the fact that the scars inflicted to him in his early years are likely to last till present. Gaara is likely to have trust issues, which explains why he keeps his emotions in check and to himself. Hanabi is an incredibly honest person to a point it almost hurts. The woman in his life must be able to make him feel like she would never betray him in any way. He is likely to be very sensitive about this and if he feels like he can't trust her then he will retreat completely. So her honesty and straight-forwardness would be reassuring for him.

Hanabi's childhood was pretty much the opposite of Gaara's. She was the golden child of the Hyuga main branch and her father and the rest of the clan treated her as such. I'm also guessing that since Hanabi was the second born child she was also aware of the thread of being sealed, the one thing that kept the Clan from it was because they believed her to be more suited as the next leader. Knowing that must have put a lot of pressure onto her and she worked hard to make sure Hinata doesn't catch up to her because that would have resulted in her getting sealed. It's also very possible that the relationship to Hinata as the representative of the constant thread of being sealed was rather strained. As a child, growing up hearing complains about her older sister and her own praise from the Clan, I picture her to have been harsh, overly proud, as expected of a Hyuga and maybe arrogant. At some point this must have changed, personally I believe the first impact to be the fight in the Chunin exams between Neji and Naruto. Seeing the determination of a branch family member and the supposed to be village's loser may triggered something in her and Neji's change in the time past his fight might have influenced her as well. After believing in everything so strongly her disappointment could have revolted in the opposite. She is smart and cynical and honest, still a few Hyuga traits remain. She is proud and Hanabi is unyielding, never giving in and she definitely doesn't care about what other people think about her.

Both of them are very composed and rational people. They still balance each other out because of their similarities, but are still different enough to help and support each other. Someone very outgoing would make Gaara feel uncomfortable and inadequate, like he is missing something, and someone too similar like him, would let neither one benefit from the other. A woman too much like him would be too stiff and too introverted, he'd have no fun with someone like that and would not be able to make new experiences.

Gaara wants acceptance and he wants to be forgiven for his past sins. All his life people have looked at him with fear and terror in their eyes. He was never treated like everyone else and after a period of experiencing this he immediately became Kazekage. Their treatment changed into a form of admiration and distance mixed with a little remaining distrust. But he never experienced how it feels to be treated as just another human being. Hanabi isn't from Suna and ha wouldn't have any guilt toward her; he could start a relationship that would not be weighted down by his past too much. Also the way I characterized Hanabi she would behave around him like she would with anyone else. Her self-esteem is rather high as a result from the praises in her clan and therefore she is able to stand up to him.

As the Kazekage he shoulders a great responsibility and should be able to relax at home and talk about his problems with someone he knows he can undoubtedly trust. Hinata and Hanabi are similar to a certain degree and her calmness and sturdiness combined with the way she treats him would effectively help him gain courage to trust her. Most likely it will be a slow process in which Hanabi will have to prove to him that firstly she trust him without expecting him to do the same. In this rather slow progressing relationship her patience and serenity would make him feel at ease.

Of course one could ask why I didn't pick Matsuri who is closer to Gaara, because we know only slightly more about her than Hanabi. Well honestly at first I liked the idea of Gaara and Matsuri, but when I thought about it I couldn't find it in me. I'll explain why. The relationship between Matsuri and Gaara is a student-teacher relationship. It was hard for Gaara to establish a close relationship like this with someone and I'd like to let him keep this special relationship with her. It is special to him and evolving their relationship into something more would also mean he would lose that special bond with her and I didn't want to rob him of that. Apart from that I was never a fan of a relationship between student and teacher since it is kind of…well icky. Another reason that would point to someone outside of Suna is Gaara's bloody past. Someone who wouldn't know about it may make Gaara feel better and less guilty. Hanabi wouldn't have experienced any of that neither would Gaara feel like she is doing this out of the wrong reasons or to please him.

Some people might think that their age difference of five years is a bit too much, but honestly that's not how I feel. Five years are really not that much and I still prefer a five years difference over a student-teacher relationship, but I guess that's for everyone to decide for themselves.

So I ended up with Hanabi because I can't get the picture of cute little red haired babies with light sea green Byakugan out of my head…Yeah, bite me, that's how it is.

* * *

**Tell me what you think**


	4. Chapter 1

**I don't own Naruto.**

**In case you didn't read the preface since it isn't story relevant. Neji is alive in this story...so is everyone else that may die in the Manga.  
**

* * *

**-1-  
**

Exactly at midnight to the night from the 26th to the 27th of December Hinata Hyuga awoke with a start.

_What the…? _The dark haired beauty rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and yawned, when suddenly the door slammed open.

"Happy birthday, Hinata!"

Next thing she knew the still drowsy woman found herself crushed in a bear hug, whose impact made her fall right back into bed. A mass of sun blond hair was blocking her vision and a smile played on her lips. In this very moment Hinata was extremely glad no one had switched on the light and it was still dark inside the room, save for the strands of light flickering in from the open door, so no one could see the light pink on her cheeks.

"Geez, Naruto did you have to push me just because you wanted to be first?" the young brunette leaning in the bright doorframe shook her head in a disapproving manner. She had just picked herself up from the floor, where she had felt down and brushed non-existent dust from her clothes.

"Naruto, could you let go of her? Others would like to congratulate as well!" Hanabi stomped over to her bed and pulled the tall man away from Hinata.

He slouched down to the floor, obviously pouting since in his opinion he **not** had been granted enough time to shed all his good wishes with the birthday ignoring his attitude and not even mildly impressed at Naruto's immature behavior Hanabi proceeded and hugged her sister fiercely.

"Happy 23rd birthday"

Hinata couldn't help the grin that was plastered on her face ever since she found herself hugged by Naruto, even if it was in the middle of the night and she could and should still be sleeping. She gave her sister a wink and leaned down to where her blond friend was still moping.

"I'm really glad you were my first Naruto" she said with the most innocent voice she could muster up, trying hard not to let humor slip in her tone.

His head shot around to face her so fast that she could only make out a yellow blur. When he saw her barely concealed laughter and the mischief in her eyes, his own lips raised to a smirk. Before he could reply with what could only be assumed as an incredibly smooth comeback he was interrupted.

"I'm next in line!" Tenten cried out happily while running past Neji, who did seem slightly irritated because she had delivered a good elbow punch in his side while hurrying past him, only to get to **his **cousin first.

"You're all here?!" surprised Hinata let herself get pulled into yet another hug by her cousin's teammate. Seeing most of her friends here sure was a surprise. It was only her 23rd birthday after all.

But then again, most of the infamous Rookie Nine spent most of their time inside the village for some time now, as well as Neji. Her cousin had recently been named the next leader of the Hyuga clan, which in turn caused his amount of missions to drop dramatically. His former teammates instead were still very busy with missions, something that Neji was not very happy about. Hinata suspected it was because Tenten was away a lot, but she had no proof whatsoever. And Neji insisted it was because he wanted to have more missions before being tied down by politics and clan laws.

Sakura was head of the medical forces alongside with Shizune, so she spent most of her time in the hospital or training new medics. Ino had followed her father's footsteps and became part of the interrogation force of Konoha and Chouji had surprisingly decided to become an academy on the other hand was still unwilling to stay away from danger too long, he had made Jounin by now and was out a lot more than he used to. He was going to lead his own Genin team next year. Naruto was also busy a lot, but since Tsunade planned to retire some time she had made him her trainee which made him stay in the village more and more. Both Shino and Sai were now part of the diplomatic department and assigned to foreign embassies. Shikamaru was one of the main strategic advisors of the Hokage and barely left the village anymore, not that he minded.

So all of them had become very close friends and spent a lot of time together.

Hinata directed her attention back to the rest of her surprise guests. Besides Tenten, Neji,who was the next one to congratulate her, she could also make out Lee. From her position, which was still on the bed she also saw Sakura, Ino and Kiba. A little further behind Shikamaru was sleeping at the kitchen table, said man was obviously dragged here by his blonde girlfriend Temari.

"Chouji would have loved to come, but…" Ino started just to be interrupted by Neji "…but he, Tenten and I have a mission tomorrow which is why we will leave now"

That was unusual, but before Hinata could ask about the mission, Tenten jumped to her feet and pointed and accusing finger at her former teammate "I'm not leaving yet. Who do you think you are? My boss? Do you know how long it took me to get **you** to agree to come to your own cousin's birthday?"

Disregarding the protest and mumbling something about how he only agreed to come to wish her a happy birthday and leave right after that and only because a certain someone would not stop nagging him about it, the Hyuga already proceeded to pull Tenten out the door with him.

"Be careful and thanks for coming" Hinata yelled after them, well, as loud as Hinata yelled, anyways.

"Oh right, my girlfriend can't make it either, she…"

"Oh Kiba I know just how you feel, my beloved darling did not have time either. You must miss her horribly" Lee patted the Inuzuka's shoulder compassionate. Said man looked at him like Lee had just gone crazy.

"Yeah…well, happy birthday Hinata" he said while looking at Lee out of the corner of his eyes warily, probably terrified that he would do something crazy. Like hug him, Kiba shuddered…

"Let's open the presents" Naruto shouted exited pumping his fist in the air..."Ouch! Sakura-chan what did you do that for?"

"Don't shout in my ear!" the pinkette exclaimed, the vein on her forehead still present.

"Sakura, please" Hinata looked at her disapprovingly.

The medic sighed "Oh come on, I barely touched him". Sakura was well aware that Hinata did not like her hitting Naruto **at all**; it would have been cute, if in conclusion, it didn't mean that it made Sakura feel actually guilty about it. Of course that was completely ridiculous; Naruto deserved a good hit from time to time. Someone had to set the knucklehead straight and the pink haired medic had delightfully taken the burden on to herself.

Anyway Sakura made a mental note not to do it in front of Hinata anymore, because the beseeching expression in the Hyuga heiresses eyes made Sakura feel like she had done something wrong. Which she hadn't, of course!

"Yeah Sakura, don't hit me all the time. Thank you Hinata you're the best" the blond took a step away from his former teammate and behind the bluenette, faking a scared look.

The irony of the situation how similar Hinata used to hide when she was younger, was lost to them as the emerald eyed woman gave an exasperated sigh; it was hopeless

"Anyway, I wish you a happy birthday Hinata. I gotta go now. Tomorrow I have the early shift. Just came by to wish you a happy birthday"

"Wait, Sakura, I have the same shift. Let's go home together!" Ino shot up and hugged Hinata a quick goodbye.

"I'll walk you ladies home. My girl's house on the way anyway" Kiba waved goodbye as he offered both of his female friends one arm in an attempt to be a gentleman, only to be ignored by both of them.

Lee left shortly after and after Temari finally managed to get Shikamaru up they said goodbye as well.

"Guess it's just the two of us now, ne Hinata?" Naruto grinned, his hands crossed behind his back.

"Sure, just ignore the only person left, that a) is related to the birthday girl and b) LIVES here!" Hanabi sulked, and then she smiled seeing that Naruto shot her the 'why-don't-you-just-leave' look. Knowing her sister well the 18 year old complied for once and headed for her room, but not before glaring at Naruto with a 'don't-do-anything-perverted-to-my-beloved-sister' look.

Trying his best to ignore the not so innocent thoughts that had occupied his mind for only an instant after Hanabi's look, Naruto planted his form to the couch. He pulled Hinata to his side and then started to jump up and down with enthusiasm "Will you open my present? It's awesome, you're gonna love it!"

She laughed softly and took the box from his large hands; it was wrapped carefully in a, surprise!, bright orange color. "You don't need to give me something, Naruto"

"I want to"

Honoring his zealous wrapping, she unpacked it cautiously. When she saw what he gave her, the woman couldn't help but laugh. In her hands she was holing a bright orange shirt with DATTEBAYO! written on it. "I love it, Naruto. This will be my favorite shirt"

Proudly he smirked "Well, it better be. Orange is an awesome color, you know"

"It sure is" smiling she agreed.

"Are you mocking me?" Naruto was getting suspicious.

"You know I would never do that" with the most sincere look she could manage she looked at him while biting back a smile. Content Hinata leaned back on the couch as Naruto was trying to get his point across by naming all the great things about orange.

Almost six years after Pain's attack, Naruto and she were as close as they would ever get: **friends**. Hinata would go as far as to say there were best friend, well he was for her anyway. As for Naruto, he just had so many good friends, she was just one of them. But he sure kept the promise he made to her.

_It had been two days since Pain´s attack and the village was slowly trying to deal with what had happened. Thanks to Naruto no one had died, well technically no one was dead anymore, but still there were some heavily wounded people. Right now the village's official hero was pacing back and forth in the tent where he had been treated. Naruto really wanted to go out and help everyone rebuilding Konoha but Sakura had forbidden him strictly to leave the tent. That gave the Jinchurriki a lot of time to think about what happened, the talk with his father was still on his mind but there was also the fact that he still hadn't talked to Hinata. _

_Honestly he had no idea what to say. When she said she loved him, did she mean it like he thought she meant it or did she just love him like a friend or something? _

_Would she call that love?_

_What if she really meant__** love**__ love? What if she really loved him? Could that even be possible? Why… why would she love him of all people?_

_Naruto couldn't recall a time, when he done anything for her, she was a friend sure but they weren't very close and besides he had always thought Hinata didn't really like him. She was always blushing and then there was this weird fainting thing and she was so scared around him she couldn't even form coherent words…face palm. _

_He groaned, having literally done the face palm. _

_Looking back at it with the new information he had, it sure put it in a different complexion. Did that mean all this time she had actually __**liked**__ him? It made no sense at all. What had ever done to deserve that or to make her feel that way…and she claimed he had saved her. When? Naruto was sure he never done anything special for Hinata. He had never done anything like that , nothing at all as a matter of fact, they had barely interacted at all. He never saved her. Why would she say that? Why would she try to save him? Why would she be willing to die for him? He felt his heart tighten. No one should have been there; no one was supposed to die for him. _

_Naruto put his head between his hands what should he do now? He never thought much about Hinata, sure she was one of his friends but he never really talked to her. How did that happened?_

_Why would she love him, no one loved him. No one ever told him that. No one would because no one felt that way. How was he supposed to know what to do with that? _

_Honestly he was terrified to face Hinata. What if he said something stupid, would she be mad at him, hate him? Naruto didn't want that. He knew he had to tell her something, at least thank her but he didn't know what to tell her about her confession. He never thought about her that way. So what now? He didn't want to lose her friendship and he sure as hell didn't want to hurt her._

_Naruto sighed, he wasn't good at planning ahead he was more like a "speak your mind and improvise" kind of guy. But he just felt like that wasn't enough. Reluctantly he got up and decided to look for Hinata and then think about what to do, because frankly there was no other plan and up until now it always worked out for him. _

…

_Hinata smiled down at the cute little brown haired boy. After she had recovered, the Hyuga heiress had immediately volunteered to help out the medics as best as she could. Because of Tsunade's orders every shinobi who was able to, had gone through a basic medical training. Hinata was far from Sakura's or Ino's level but she only had to take care of minor scratches and bruises, most of them not caused by the attack but by little accidents during the reconstruction. _

"_Is it going to hurt?" two big brown eyes looked up at her. _

_The boy was about seven years old and he did seem a bit scared. _"_Don't worry it is just a little sting when I disinfect it. I bet you won't even feel it, I can see you are very brave" _

_Maybe Hinata had trouble talking to some people, especially certain blond people but kids weren't a problem. Over the years she had discovered that her stutter depended on the person she was talking to. It was worst with Naruto, for obvious reasons, followed by her father and the eldest of the Hyuga clan; it got better when she knew the person and spent some time with him or her. It was almost gone with Neji and she basically never stuttered around Shino, Kiba, Kurenai or her sister. In fact with them she felt relaxed and like she could be herself, it was rather pleasant to be able to show who you're truly are with no fear of being judged or misunderstood. And of course she didn't stutter around children._

"_See there you go, your knee is all patched up. That was really brave of you. The bravest warrior I have ever seen and if you get really lucky you will get a cool scar. Girls really go for that" with a wink she looked up._

_Disgusted the boy viewed at her "Bah like I would want that. Girls are so weird. And just today I saw I girl with pink hair punching a guy all across the room…it was scary" _

_Hinata stifled a laugh and blew a faint kiss at the boy´s knee and got up just to look finding him starring at her with eyes almost bulging out. _"_Oh, sorry it was just a reflex. I do that for my little sister. Hope it didn't gross you out too much" a little ashamed she smiled at him and reached into her pocket for a piece of candy. _

_The boy studied her thoughtfully "You know maybe not all girls are that bad". She smiled at him and patted his head. Munching the candy happily he left the tent._

"_I sure wish all the nurses here were more like you. You can patch __**me **__up any time, you know" Hinata quickly turned around at the familiar voice _"_And additionally I have loads of scars. I must be quiet the ladies' man"._

"_Don't worry Kiba; I will patch you up whenever needed. You are my favorite patient after all" she smiled as the dog lover pulled her into a quick hug. _

"_How about I take that offer right now? Because I may look fine, but a just escaped death by a string. I have this life-threatening wound that barely missed my forehead" Kiba grimaced and pointed at a small scratch on his temple. _

_Questioning she raised an eyebrow. Her friend laughed a little embarrassed and explained to her how it was totally not his fault Shino couldn't take a joke and had his insects attack him, which in turn caused him to stumble over a pile of woods. _"_Worst part is I landed in a pile of aggressive smelling soap and now my smelling sense is all messed up! Stupid Shino! And you know how much I like to smell your sweet scent" _

_Rolling her eyes Hinata quickly disinfected it, by now she was more than used to Kiba's "charm" and the fact that he flirted with every female being he set his eyes on that wasn't Sakura, Ino or Tenten, Hinata assumed he was scared of them. When she was done Hinata told him it would heal on its _own.

_Just when she thought of a nice way of telling him that his "life-threatening-wound" was not really a reason to even come to a medic tent, she noticed him pouting at her. He crossed his arms childishly _"_What I don't get a kiss to make it better?"_

_Hinata was speechless for a few seconds before she let out a small giggle. _"_O-oh poor you! I´m terribly sorry. How were you ever going to heal?" she blew a faint kiss on his temple and gave him a goody. _"_All better now?" _

_He grinned widely at her "You betcha. And the more I think about it the more I find other body parts that seem to hurt…"_

"_K-Kiba!" Hinata scolded, even with her being used to his flirty attitude, he still managed to catch her unguarded and scandalize the hell out of her. It was funny however that she never blushed no matter what he threw at her but the second Naruto was in the game or his name was mentioned or there was any hint of said blond she turned into this red stuttering helpless thing- it was silly. _

"_Fine, fine, I'll leave. See ya 'round Hinata"_

_As Hinata watched Kiba leave she couldn't help but shake her head at him. She was glad she landed in a team with him; he definitely helped her to be less embarrassed around others. He was just too direct and certainly not a 'closet' pervert. He took it out in the open. Sometimes it was a little overwhelming for her, but ever since she got placed on a team with him, she would never consider herself innocent ever again. Sure up until now it was all talk but it would be only a matter of time before Kiba…_

…

_It hadn't taken him long to find her, but when he had arrived at the tent, she had been busy dealing with some little kid. So instead of addressing her, Naruto decided to chicken out, though he called it, 'not disturbing Hinata while's she's working'. It did sound a lot better after all. Besides maybe he should wait for the masterstroke to hit him…Yeah that sounded like a plan! Trying his best to hide his chakra signature he decided to wait. Glancing through a hole in the back of the tent he could see her patching up the boy's knee. _

_Damn, he had no idea she was that good with kids. She didn't even stutter and when she wasn't red all over and stuttering like crazy she was really nice and cute. The kid seemed to share his opinion and laughed happily at her, Hinata patted his head with a sweet laugh. Frowning Naruto wondered if he had ever seen her smile so much. Did he ever see her laugh like she had no care in the world? He didn't know and it kind of bugged him. Even if there weren't that close, it was still shocking he had been such an uncaring friend to her. Well, that was going to change from now on. _

"_I sure wish all the nurses here were more like you. You can patch me up any time, you know" _

_Well Naruto couldn't argue with that. If he ever had a scratch on __**his**__ knee he now knew who he wanted to take care of him. But his plan of approaching her now, were once again shattered…how unfortunate that now he had more time to wait for the, hopefully soon arriving, masterstroke._

_Watching her interaction with Kiba got Naruto irritated. Since when did Hinata act so carefree and even …flirty? _

_Obviously there was a hell of a lot about her he didn't know. If he pulled something like that with Sakura, Naruto inwardly shuddered; you could scratch what was left of him from some wall right about now. Coming to the conclusion that he didn't know nothing about Hinata at all, was something that didn't sit well with him. His friends were important to him and just because she was shy he had been ignoring her. That wasn't fair and it only encouraged him in his decision to get to know her better and be a better friend, oh and he would, that was a promise._

_How come Hinata was so relaxed around Kiba but around him she was close to a nervous breakdown, so tense you could cut the air around her? That was so going to have to change and that was another promise. Seeing her like that with Kiba made him really want to get to know her. She seemed like an awesome person when she was all relaxed and he wanted a friend like her in his life. He wanted her to be around him, like she was with Kiba. That Hinata seemed so sweet and funny. The real her not the stuttering mess she was around him. _

_She said she loved him yet she was so distant all the time. Naruto was not happy about that. He might not returned her feelings but making one of his friends feel so uncomfortable in his presence left a foul taste in his mouth. If there was one good thing about …well 'not disturbing Hinata while she's working', because spying was such an ugly word, it was that now Naruto was sure Hinata would listen to him even if he sounded like an idiot. She did put up with Kiba after all and he was way more idiotic than him. And a lot more perverted, and around Hinata of all people! And she seemed totally fine with it! That, Naruto didn't expect. _

_...  
_

_When Hinata turned around again she found herself facing the number one ninja in surprising people standing in the middle of the tent. The well-known feeling of warmth spread to her body and reached her cheeks, but however she was glad she didn't look like a tomato this time. A smile adored her immediately after seeing him _"_Wh-What brings you…here, Na-Naruto-kun?" _

_Nervously he scratched the back of his head "Well, we haven't really had time to talk since…"he stopped with a look on his face she couldn't quite describe. "Anyway, I...well, I don't really know how…Ok, let me start again." _

_Knowing where this was going Hinata felt her blush picking up a darker shade; patiently she crossed her arms behind her back, unconsciously biting her lip and watched him fiddle for words. That was certainly something new. It would have been kind of funny seeing him act like her if it wouldn't have been about her confession. Naruto sucked in a huge amount of air _"_Thanks" he ended up saying lamely._

_Hinata smiled gently but not trusting her voice, she didn't respond. It was better than making a fool out of herself by stuttering like an idiot. For a while they just stood there in awkward silence, before Hinata finally mustered up enough courage to open her mouth. _

"_You…you don't have to…to thank m-me. I couldn't r-really do anything. And I…I don't ex-expect y-you to say anything more, if…if that´s what you-you´re worried a-ab-about" _

"_NO! I …I just don't really know what …what to say, ya know?" he called out urgently. _

_When he looked her straight into her eyes, she quickly diverted her eyes to the ground not wanting to get swallowed by his ocean blue eyes. Not looking at him directly would prevent her from fainting right at the spot. Recalling her humiliating stutter she settled for a simple nod. _

"_I …Hinata? I´m sorry please don't be mad." _

_Hinata´s head shot up and she looked at him __thunderstruck__ed "No, of course not, why would I be mad? I …I did-didn´t expect…you to say anything." _

_Naruto looked like a heavy burden had just been lifted of his shoulders "Hinata…Thank you…you know not just for saving my life, but for…everything you said." _

"_You're wel-welcome anytime Naruto-kun."_

_Again he started to scratch the back of his head tensely _"_I was wondering Hinata. Do you think we could be friends? …Not that we´re not friends now, but I mean like really good friends, you know?"_

_A small laugh escaped her lips "I …I´d l-like that". _

_Beaming he grinned at her "Great! I promise we are gonna be real awesome friends and I never go back on my word."_

_Leaving the medic tent after the conversation with Hinata, Naruto felt great. Like really great. Turned out he was worried for nothing. And now they would be genuine, close friends. The thought made him happy. The promise he made to Hinata, he intended to keep it, for good. He was gonna make her feel comfortable around him! He wanted her to be with him like she was with Kiba and he would so make that happen, Dattebayo! _

"_NARUTO, didn't I tell you to stay in the tent?" Naruto cringed._


	5. Chapter 2

**I don't own Naruto.**

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Yawning Naruto sat up in bed. A look at his alarm clock told him, it was already 11 a.m. Without a mission to go to, he sure got lazy. But well, it had gotten really late last night with Hinata's birthday and all, so it was alright he guessed. Lazily he got up, not because he wanted to, but his stomach demanded some attention. A view in the fridge made clear, that he needed to do some grocery shopping. There was not even enough for breakfast, or considering the time, lunch. So he had to pay a visit to Ichiraku's for brunch, not that brunch at Ichiraku's made him unhappy or anything. But after filling the hole in his stomach, he would go shopping, otherwise Hinata would be disappointed in him, he grinned inwardly.

_When Naruto first made that promise to her, Hinata had no idea what she was getting into, because Naruto took the promise very seriously. He told her they would be great friends and Naruto wasn't one to take it slow or give it time. _

_They had fought side by side and Naruto would forever be grateful for what she did for him, as well as se would always be grateful to him. And so after the war ended Hinata found herself spending more and more time with the tall blonde hero. _

_Usually it would start out with all of their friends or her team but somehow they often ended up alone. They would eat together and talk a lot. _

_Honestly, at first Naruto was the one doing all the talking. It didn't take him long to enjoy talking to Hinata. It was funny how it didn't matter how quietly he talked or how stupid it sounded, Hinata always heard him, and she would always listen patiently. She'd take him seriously and her replies were still shy at first but always carefully thought through and never meant to hurt him. It was nice for a change after years of getting ridiculed or being ignored. Of course, nowadays no one did that anymore but with Hinata it just felt different. Naruto couldn't remember a time, when she had purposefully hurt him in any way and he could count the people he could say that about on one hand. _

_The more time they spend together the more Naruto got her to warm up to him and to talk. Much to his surprise, she turned out a lot more fun than he initially had thought. _

_Even when he had heard her talk to Kiba, it didn't show off just how nice and easy-going she really was. The only thing that still annoyed him was that she hadn't stopped being so nervous. The fainting had stopped and the blushing didn't bother him, but her stutter engrossed him and it was just a bit annoying. He had made the resolution to get her to stop doing that around him._

_In order to do that he needed to spend a lot of time with her, not that he minded. Hinata needed to get used to his presence and his outgoing character. _

_After spending some time with her, he realized she didn't stutter when she was giving advice. When he was feeling down or doubted himself, she would help him out and her stutter disappeared completely. Oh, and she never stuttered around her teammates or Neji, the people she felt comfortable with - and he would become one of them! _

_He had already decided that._

_Naruto really appreciate Hinata's company, no matter what he told her, she never laughed at him for being stupid. So he soon stopped to be afraid to tell what was on his mind. Even if he was thinking it was stupid, he could talk about it with Hinata. Naruto remembered having that he felt like that around her for a long time. He just didn't stop to realize it. _

_The first person he had ever truly let his guard down had been Hinata. Before he had fought Neji in the Chunin exams, he had felt so insecure and not confident at all. _

_Back then it didn't matter to him, that they weren't such close friend; Naruto just had had the feeling he could trust her, so he dropped the mask of brightness for only a bit and got rewarded greatly. What she had told him about being a proud failure and that his strength was getting up no matter what, that he was strong __**because**__ he failed and that she thought that was what true strength was. That had really helped him back then._

_And she still did help him out when he felt like losing hope, he remembered that moment during the war when they thought Neji had died… Those had been the worst moments of his life so far, and that meant something considering his childhood._

_After a long exhausting dirty mission she managed to calm him down and made him feel like he was the best person she had ever known. Naruto wasn't used to that feeling. _

_Even if he felt horrible because someone got killed or he had to hurt someone, she could make him feel at ease again. _

_Also he learned a lot about her. Steadily he started to spend more and more time with the young Hyuga heiress, more time than with anyone else of his friends. _

_Sakura was co-leading the Konoha hospital with Shizune and assisted the Gondaime a lot. So she and Naruto didn't spend as much time together as they used to, Sai had started to take diplomacy lessons, something Naruto still found hard to believe._

_Hinata however never declined his request for a spar. Truth was told he was holding back heavily against her. Not because he doubted her abilities, though she was nowhere near his level, but it just didn't seem right to hurt her or even try to. _

_It was more than three months since they were back in Konoha; back from the nightmare they called war. Naruto knew that the memories of it still haunted all of his friend's minds, as well as his own. Last night he had one of the worse nights, Naruto didn't want to be alone and he needed some distraction from all the images. _

_He had met up with Hinata, near the forest a little outside the town, for a friendly spar. _

_As great as Naruto was with Ninjutsu he still lacked skills in Taijutsu. He trained with Lee on a regular basis, but also with Hinata and occasionally Neji. But he just liked Hinata better, she always made sure he got all the praise he needed, and managed to make him feel almost smug, unlike her always smart-ass cousin. Of course Naruto knew that Neji was stronger than Hinata and training with him was more effective – it was just really hard and Neji was being mean! _

_He had made incredible progress and managed to beat Neji a couple of time, using only Taijutsu. That on the other hand was thanks to Hinata because she had pointed out that Naruto could reopen his closed "opening points" with Kurama's chakra. _

"_It…It is going to r-rain soon. We s-should go back" Hinata glanced at the sky worried. They had been training for about an hour now and the sky was getting dark. _

"_You're not scared of getting wet, ne Hinata?" Naruto mocked, not wanting to stop already. He was determined to avoid being alone for as long as he could and he felt at ease around her. _

_With a sigh Hinata gave in, she didn't mind getting soaked and she loved spending time with Naruto. _

…

_Without any further warning the rain started to pour down. Hinata let out a delightful little squeal, she just loved the rain. Looking up into the sky she let the rain hit her face. Naruto himself wasn't so happy, despite being the one who insisted on staying out earlier. He was soaked and dirty, but seeing Hinata laughing made him smile. It had cooled down considerately but thanks to Kurama and the warmth the fox provided willingly, Naruto wasn't cold._

_She laughed more now, but still too less for Naruto's liking. He still felt like Hinata didn't laugh as much as she should but he was working on that too. _

"_You sure love the rain, huh?"_

_Smiling she looked at him "Yes, w-w-when I was l-little I always wanted to play in the rain. B-but…but Father never allo-allowed it, he said I would g-get dirty. But maybe we should he-head home?" With one last look of desire she turned in the direction of the village. _

_Naruto looked at her thoughtfully before snickering inaudibly "Hey Hinata" he called after her. _

_When she turned around he ran at her full force and jumped up just to land in a mud hole in front of her. As a result she was clotted with mud. _

"_When you said play, did you mean like that?" he asked complacently. _

_Wide eyed she stared at the loudmouthed shinobi in front of her, before a large smile surfaced and she nodded fiercely. _

_Giggling they jumped from one mud hole to another like children, not caring that there clothes were stained from the mud and their soaking clothes were clinging to their bodies. _

_The heavy rain was now turning into a violent storm. The wind picked up his pace and a thunderstorm was starting. _

"_Hey I really think we should get outa here" Naruto finally said, seeing as Hinata was shaking heavily from the cold wind. _

_Hinata shook her head approvingly and they ran to the village still laughing at the rain. When the two had to part ways Naruto stopped her sternly. _

"_No way I´m letting you go through the whole village, the Hyuga compound is like on the other side. I don't want you to get caught in the storm´s eye. You can come to my place and wait till it´s over" Given that was a little ridiculous seeing that she was a kunoichi but Naruto didn't feel like being alone. He was alone way too often and after the horrible nightmare last night..._

_Startled the girl spun around to face him, after seeing he had grabbed her wrist to stop her, she blushed "N-n-no I do-don't want to...to be a bu-burden Naruto-kun" _

_He looked at her like she just grew a mustache "What the hell are you talking about? Let´s go" _

_Ignoring her weak protest he dragged her along to his tiny apartment. Hinata looked at him thoughtfully, he was behaving a little childish about it, but something in his eyes told her that he needed someone there for him, and she was already there, so…_

"_Um…it´s a little messy sorry ´bout that" Ashamed Naruto tried to kick one of his boxers out of the way. He did not think about that__when he invited her. It looked like a bomb just exploded. Well, it couldn't be helped. _

_Sweetly she smiled at him. "It´s fine, I think it´s comfy" _

_And she wasn't lying. Yes, it was untidy, like the stormed blew in his home too but at least it looked like someone lived inside it. Not like the Hyuga compound where you could eat from the floor but felt empty and shallow to her. _

_He beamed at her after noticing she didn't stutter. He walked in ahead then again stopped and turned to look when she didn't follow._

"_I …I don't want to drip all…all over y-your floor" she explained._

_Flabbergasted he starred at her. "Are you kidding? Does this place look like you could make it any worse? See I´m dripping all over the floor!"_

_To prove his point he shook one of his legs causing water drops to fall down. Hinata couldn't contain the giggle despite trying to muffle it with her hand. Smirking Naruto noted it and started to dance around like a clown to keep her laughing. He decided that he truly liked seeing her like that and hearing her laugh. _

"_Ok, y-you win" she stepped in and closed the door behind her._

"_So? You wanna shower first? I think some of my old clothes might fit you. I`ll go look for some, all right?"_

_Not caring to wait for her reply he disappeared through some door, leaving Hinata clueless as to where the bathroom might be located. She was going to SHOWER in NARUTO'S apartment? _

_Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. With hesitation the dark haired girl opened one of the doors - only to find the kitchen. The apartment wasn't big so she found the bathroom behind the third and last door. _

_Fifteen minutes later she exited the bathroom wearing one of Naruto´s dark blue shirts and his orange pants. There were a little big for her but not enough to fall down. Even if they would the shirt was reaching her mid-thigh. She found Naruto sitting on a chair watching TV. _

"_Oh, hey you're already done? That was fast for a girl….I think" he grinned largely. "You should wear more orange it really suits you"_

_Hinata flushed deep red and fiddled with her fingers nervously, not trusting her voice she simply nodded, as he got up to take his shower._

_She heard the shower running and looked at the apartment. Biting her lower lip she argued with herself whether to tidy up a bit or not. The apartment wasn't dirty, just not tidied up. _

_He was letting her stay during the storm so she should repay him somehow. But what if he would be mad for going through his stuff? Or mad for changing anything? Or…_

…_Who was she kidding? _

_She was doing it anyway, her slight neat compel problem already kicking in and forcing her hand to pink up an empty ramen cup. It was like the place begged her to help it get more tidied up. Hinata wasn't a neat freak, not entirely anyway, but...maybe she was. It didn't take long for her, most of the stuff was empty ramen cups and clothes, the first_ _ones she put in the garbage and the second she put in a big box. After she was done it looked a lot bigger and brighter, despite the dark storm outside. Wrinkling her nose she decided to try and cook something for him. _

_It may have been a good idea but after a look in his fridge, she had to let go of that plan. The only things inside it was milk and instant ramen in not one, but all of his kitchen drawers. Not even Hinata was able to make anything out of that. _

_She wondered if that was all he ever ate. She would ask him about that._

"_Woah…Wha…? How long was I in there?" Stunned Naruto gazed at the room he remembered as a total mess. Scratching his head he looked around. "Is that in fact my place? Did I make a wrong turn and ended up in someone else´s apartment?" _

_Hinata looked at him uncertainly "I ho-hope you do-don't mind, Na-Naruto-kun" _

"_Not at all" he waved her off "The place didn't look that good since I moved in. No wait, not even then. Was it always this big?" He shot her his trademark grin and she responded by blushing fiercely and fiddling her fingers. _

"_So you wanna eat something? I have ramen!" _

_Shyly she nodded. "Naruto-kun is… r-ramen all you ever eat?" _

_He looked at her happily and explained a long rigmarole of how of course he did eat more than ramen. He ate instant ramen but preferred Ichiraku´s ramen and for breakfast he ate flakes and drank milk, oh right and sometimes he would go to the BBQ restaurant Chouji loved so much and besides he ate miso ramen and pork and…. _

_Hinata´s eyes went wide and her mouth hung open. So basically he did only eat ramen. How did he survive until now?_

"_You really have to eat more healthy, Naruto-kun. It is really easy to cook healthy for yourself. I can show you some basic recipes with loads of different variations" she told him sternly._

_A few seconds later she realized what she just said and she froze. Naruto´s mouth opened slightly and he gawked at her. _

"_I-I´m s-s-sorry, I d-d-d-didn't m-mean to…to…to in-insult y-you in…" _

_Her stutter got worse he noted instantly, before interrupting her "Hinata, it´s fine! I´m not mad at you or anything. As a matter of fact I think you are right…You would really help me? That would be so great! I mean I love ramen and all but …yeah maybe I should learn to cook, 'ttebayo" he nodded thoughtfully. _

_Relief flooded through her and the knot in her throat lessened. _

"_How about we go shopping when the storm is over?" he suggested. _

_The rest of the afternoon was spent watching TV and eating noodle soup. When the rain ceased both of them were able to leave the apartment. Hinata even managed to get her clothes dry and more or less clean._

_Apparently vegetables and fruit were not something Naruto was overly familiar with. He knew the basic like bananas, apples or potatoes, but not a lot more than that. So he relied on Hinata to choose the right food for him. But seeing what she put in the car, he started to second guess his trust in her. Half of the stuff didn't even look edible and most certainly not appealing. Was food supposed to be so colorful? Hinata__tried to explain him what she was buying and she told him how the stuff was called but it was in vain since he couldn't remember any of it later. _

_Back at his place she started to explain that it was important where in his fridge he placed the food. Again he couldn't help but notice that her stutter was very isolated and seldom now that she knew what she was doing. _

"_Ok, do you have any idea what you would like eat?" smiling brightly she turned to him._

_Naruto was incredibly proud of Hinata, she had barely stuttered since they left the supermarket. Somehow that gave him a warm feeling inside. _

_They settled on a pan with vegetables and potatoes. It was easy to cook and you could diversify the dish easily. Hinata explained to him how to make an easy sauce. It was done a lot faster than he had thought and it tasted delicious. Hardly believable he would be able to do that all by himself, but it didn't seem completely impossible. He had helped after all. _

_The evening lasted longer than planned and when Hinata prepared to leave it was already dark outside. Naruto offered to bring her home but Hinata declined and told him, he had to sleep since he had a mission the next day. He didn't like the thought of her being alone outside so late, but she was a kunoichi after all and this was Konoha._

_After that Hinata and Naruto started to cook together more often, Hinata taught him how to and figured out that Naruto was a fast learner and a talented cook. Well he did like to eat, so it wasn't that surprising_.

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**Thanks for all the review last time.**

**I'm looking for a beta, so if someone can make a suggestion that would be helpful.  
**

**Tell me what you think.  
**


	6. Chapter 3

**Thank you all for reviewing! And for those who wonder what will happen between Naruto and Hinata...you may want to look at the genre I picked ;)**

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On his way to the supermarket Naruto was greeted by half the village. It filled his heart with joy and pride to know that everyone acknowledged him now. Not only that, they respected and liked him. It was amazing.

With his hand crossed behind his head the blond shinobi walked ahead with a large grin spread on his face.

"Naruto-nii-san!"

"Naruto-kun!"

Two familiar voices called out to him. Naruto turned on heels and waved at the two quickly approaching figures "Karin! Lee! You're already back? Is your vacations already over?"

The second they had caught up with her, Naruto was pulled into a bone crushing hug by his cousin followed suit by her boyfriend.

_...  
_

_Casting one last glance at the roof tops of Konoha, Karin let out a relieved breath. Her plan had worked flawlessly. Pretending to go insane over Sasuke had been a real stroke of genius, she praised herself. The stupid guards had bought it with no second guessing, as if she would still mourn over the guy who had tried to kill her! How naïve did they think she was? No matter how good a guy looked that was a no-no, you did NOT try to kill off one of your comrades. And she just saved his sorry ass mere minutes ago, too. What an ass, she was done with him. _

_With the fake key Karin had no problem to get out, in conclusion that meant Konoha had some real security problems but that was not her business. With a head shake Karin freed herself from thoughts of the past; she had to consider what to do now. She was travelling full speed away from Konoha, with no idea where to go. Now first she had to consider her next steps. _

_Of course she could always try to get revenge on Sasuke but Karin assumed that her chance of surviving that were close to zero, meaning not worth it. The only reason she was still being alive after taking that deadly blow was her inhuman ability of survival, wherever that came from. _

_Insolent son of a bitch, he dared to try to kill her and she had saved his life multiple times. After she gave it more thoughts Karin decided that it was her own fault. The Sasuke that had saved her in the forest of death and the one that pierced her body - they were two different men. She should have admitted it to herself while she still had the chance, the change in his chakra was significant. She only got what she deserved for ignoring it. Karin shuddered, never, not once had she felt a chakra change so much. As time went by it got farther and farther away from how it used to be._

_It was the complete opposite to the chakra of that boy…What was his name again? Naruto? _

_Yes definitely! Naruto it was. _

_She thought a lot about that chakra signature, it felt warm and bright and somehow…familiar? Like a long forgotten memory. _

_Just as she was about to turn her back to Konoha, she suddenly picked up familiar ones. The red head froze in utter shock. That wasn't possible; it couldn't be…he was dead! But she felt it as clear as she felt the other three signatures. _

_Orochimaru?! What the hell? He was dead, last time she checked. Acting on impulse Karin decided to follow the four man cell, consisting of Sasuke, Suigetsu, Jugo and Orochimaru. Thanks to her perfect sensor ability she was also able to hide herself effortlessly._

_In a nervous habit she readjusted her glasses as she followed them at a safe distance. First they picked up some strange mask and then they went into a building. She held her breath as a certain sense of threat was taking over her. _

_That was not possible, he had summoned the Shinigami and … Karin was shaking with fear. What did they want with the previous Hokage and what was that talk about the ones who knew it all?_

_It surprised her that none of them had sensed her yet but Suigetsu and Jugo were not exactly the most attentive shinobi and neither they nor Sasuke were sensory types. Orochimaru on the other hand should have sensed her by now, but then again he was very weak compared to his former self. _

_Karin strained her ears to not miss any part of the conversation._

"_So Sasuke-kun, are you sure you want to know everything?" Orochimaru gave him a sly smile. _

"_Shut up and show me what I want to know" the Uchia sneered at the Sannin. _

"_My, my Sasuke-kun impatient aren't we? Let me tell you one thing tough everything comes with a price. Therefore I propose a deal to you"_

"_I'm not interested to deal with you, Orochimaru. Show me what I want to know or do you want me to kill you again" _

_Laughter was the answer he received "Are you sure you want to do that again, Sasuke-kun? You couldn't beat the Jinchurriki, could you?" _

"_What do you know?"_

"_I know that at your current level you cannot beat him. And I know that you will need my help if you want to take down Konoha. I know that the only way you will have your answers is with me. So Sasuke-kun, don't you want to rethink that deal I'm offering?"_

_Karin held her breath as the silence stretched on._

"_First you will let me talk to them and then I will think about it" _

_A small smile crossed the snake Sanin's lips "Very well, Sasuke-kun"_

_The longer Karin listened in to the conversation displaying before her the more her eyes widen. This was …incredible powerful information. But what was she going to do with it?_

_As careful as she came Karin retreated. The second she was outside she started to run as fast and as far as her legs would carry. After she couldn't sense their chakra anymore she finally allowed herself to sink to the ground. What was she supposed to do know? _

_Come to think of it this area looked awfully familiar to her. She was close to one of Orochimaru's old hideouts; maybe she could find more information there. _

_Even as she went in, her fear was too great to let her stay for long, so she ended up grabbing a bunch of important looking scroll and got the hell out. She was scared that Orochimaru and Sasuke would come back so she was trying to get far away as possible, before she had to stop to catch her breath._

_Sighing she leaned her red hair against the trunk of a tree and put out the scrolls she had stolen earlier. Might as well could she look through them until she figured out what to do. Digging through the scrolls Karin searched frantically for any more information. One specific scroll caught her eye because her name was written on it. _

_She attempted to process the information on it. When her village was attacked she was the sole survivor. She had never known her mother was from a clan and no one ever told her she had an aunt. According to this document her mother´s sister was Uzumaki Kushina, said girl was transferred to the hidden leave and grew up there. She married Namikaze Minato and they had a son, her cousin… Uzumaki Naruto._

_So that was the reason she had felt so warm and happy when she saw him. Karin's hand trembled, this was incredible…She had a family! Determination filled her eyes she had a lot to make up to, starting now!_

_She adjusted her glasses for what felt like the millionth time. How would she be able to give this information, even if she wanted to? Her senses could make out the clashing of thousands of signatures in a very far distance. She would never reach them in time…_

_Her jaw clenched, so what if she reached late, the important thing was that she would reach them. Karin started to run._

_She didn't know for how long she ran, but the signatures grew closer and closer. She needed to be there sooner! Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks. There were more signatures, ones she didn't feel before. Five signatures about three miles to the north, but they were so weak she could barely sense them. One of them however caught her attention, she had felt that signature in Konoha already…and maybe the person could help her. Hesitating she changed her course._

_Her red eyes widen at the sight before her, if she was not mistaken and she rarely was, except when it came to freakishly good-looking, homicidal Uchia's, before her she saw the five Kages. As for now, the only conscious people were a young handsome red-head, maybe around her age and the person with the familiar chakra, which would make the blonde woman, the legendary Sannin and current Hokage, Tsunade. Four of them were at the brick of death, and all help would be too late for the oldest member of the five, the Tsuchikage. _

_Tsunade was on her knees, hurt badly and bleeding but still frantically trying to heal the Kazekage, who seemed to have had taken the least damage. The sand that surrounded him was heavy with blood and his breathing shallow. His demands for Tsunade to stop wasting her last chakra were futile._

"_Stop!" Karin's body moved before she could understand it "Hokage-sama you will die if you don't stop" She kneeled next to the blonde, shoving her arms away. _

_Honey brown eyes meet her own ruby ones, "I'm a medic it is my duty to…"_

"_I know but…" Karin saw that her eyes were glazed over, that being the reason she didn't say anything about recognizing her as a prisoner of Konoha. "Look, I can help"_

_Karin changed her strategy, she was a smart girl and she had to seize the chance she was given. If she could win the trust of the Kage's, there might be a chance for her._

"_Bite me!"_

"_Excuse me?" despite her condition, Tsunade had not yet lost all her common sense._

"_Look, Hokage-sama, I know you don't know me and you have no reason to believe me, but my chakra is special. It will make you heal and…Please" her tone was desperate. If only she could heal Tsunade, her abilities as a medic were astonishing and if only half of it was true then maybe there really was a chance for the surviving Kages. _

"_You have nothing to lose! Please" the red head held out her wrist._

_Tsunade's vision became blurry again, her breathing more rapid. And the Hokage knew that the way she was right now, she could not save anyone, she had already used the chakra stored away in her jewel, the girl whoever she was, was right._

…

_Taking a deep breath Tsunade straightened up, next to her the Kazekage summoned his sand into his gourd once again. Thanks to the girl she had been able to save not only the Kazekage, but also the Mizukage and A. Nothing could be done for Onoki, he had been dead even before Karin arrived. _

"_Are you sure about this? I mean Orochimaru being back…" Mei shook her head. _

"_Yes" Karin was sitting on the ground unable to get up. The healing process had left her weak and drained of strength. _

_Soft brown eyes were looking at her. Tsunade had crouched down next to her "Stay here and rest as well as you can. I'll send someone to you. We are in your debt, Karin. I will take care of you"_

_Tired she nodded._

…

_The four remaining Kage's raced to the battlefield as quickly as possible. _

"_I can't reach head-quarters" Gaara remarked. His face and voice stoic, yet it was clear that this left him uneasy._

"_None of us can. We just have to go on"_

_The ground was torn and hundreds of corpses were shattered amongst it. The Juubi was on rampage and the shinobi alliance was desperately trying to avoid and counterattack. _

_They split up and moved swiftly through the battlefield._

"_Lee what happened?" Tsunade stopped as she saw Gai's favorite student clutching a body that looked too much like Neji for her liking. Behind him their third teammate Tenten stared at the scene unmoving, clearly under shock._

"_Hokage-sama" his dark eyes were teary as he looked up "Neji… he tried to … he protected Hinata and Naruto and…"_

_Quickly she kneeled down, her fingers already searching for any kind of pulse. It was there, barely and faint and fading, but it was still there._

"_Lee, look at me" the blonde ordered "Look at me. There still is a way! You have to be very fast, ok? Take Neji and bring him about 20 miles east from here. There is a young woman, she has red hair and her name is Karin. Bring him to her; she's the only one who can maybe save him"_

_Tsunade resisted the urge to check on Neji more, there was nothing she could do. Not while there were at the battle ground, to save him she needed equipment she didn't have and even then… Neji was closer to death than to life, but Karin, her abilities…Maybe there was a chance._

"_Go!" Tsunade urged. She had casted a small medic Jutsu on Neji, that would prevent too much blood from pouring out his body._

_No further words were spoken as Lee picked up his friend and rival and raced like the Juubi was hunting him._

"_Tenten! I know you're worried but we need you now! Where is Naruto?"_

_The brunette snapped out of it and with one last glance in the direction her teamates went off of to, she turned to the woman who was her idol "Naruto is with Hinata, they are leading the attack"  
_

…

_That event had marked the beginning of the friendship between Lee and Karin. And when the war finally came to an end and was allowed to leave the prison on probation. She had given her other scrolls to Tsunade and when the Hokage stumbled upon the specific one in which Karin's name and heritage was stated, Tsunade had immediately asked for her presence. They talked for about half an hour before the Hokage sent for Naruto. _

"_What is it Baa-chan? You want to make me Hokage right now?" good-humored Naruto stepped in. _

"_Stop calling me that, you disrespectful brat" _

_Not bothering to explain any more she tossed him the scroll he needed to know about._

_He slowly let his hand fall down. "I don't understand what that means" he said slowly._

"_Well according to those documents, your mother had a sister, we didn't know about and Karin is therefore your cousin" Tsunade explained calmly. _

_Naruto nodded numbly, gradually processing the new information. He had family? Well he had a cousin, but he really didn't know what to do with it. If he believed Lee, Karin was a lot nicer than she first seemed, plus it was thanks to her that Tsunade and the other Kages were alive. _

_Before he could say another word, Karin stepped forward and grabbed his hand shaking it enthusiastically _"_I know this is very surprising. Trust me I was shocked too. I thought I had no family left, so this is kind of totally exciting for me. Well, I guess you´re not very happy about it right now, but believe me I´m so gonna make up for my past mistakes. You know we totally should have a party, you know kind of family reunion. Trust me we will have so much fun, I managed to find a few family scrolls at Orochimaru's so you can learn some sealing techniques and stuff…." _

_Ok, this girl definitely talked a lot and fast, she seemed unstoppable and really happy. Maybe he should give her a chance, Lee liked her and, hey ,she was family after all. Naruto gave his trademark grin, his mind was made up._

…

_Karin turned out a lot different than she seemed to be around Sasuke. She was very enthusiastic and passionate. Similar to Sakura she had a temper and like Naruto endless energy. She also appeared to be very fortunate for Konoha as well, her healing ability tuned out to be an interesting research field. It surprised no one when she started to hang out with Lee a lot because he was her hero after all. _

_After figuring out that in a fight without at least basic skills in taijutsu she was doomed, she had even asked him to help her out. Lee enjoyed giving the red head taijutsu lessons, not only was she a fast learner but she was eager to do more. And he totally fell for her when she complimented his green suit. She wore one willingly for training but somehow it looked trendy on her. Of course that was because she wore it in a different manner than him. Shorter and with accessories, it kind of looked hot on her. Even Ino admitted that once but was in denial ever since. _

_Karin loved spending time not only with Lee but with Guy-sensei also. To everyone's disturbance they too started to develop the whole hugging sunset scenario. Especially Naruto found it very alarming. She was his family and despite their rough start she grew to him. So Naruto got protective of her, like she was his little sister. She was technically older than him, but since he was bigger and higher than her, she seemed little. To him it still counted, she was his little sister and that was it. And his family in nice guy sunset pose was nothing something he was entirely happy about._

...

"_To Hinata, the best ambassador the Hyuga Clan has ever seen" _

"_Cheers" _

_When Ino had found out that Hinata had taken her father's offer to become the Hyuga diplomat she had mustered up all the girls for 'girls only celebration', much to the guys, especially Naruto's dismay._

_Hinata smiled a little embarrassed from all the attention. "T-thank you all, but this wa-wasn't necessary." _

"_Oh, it sure was!" Sakura said sternly._

"_Yay, we are so proud of you" Tenten nudged her softly. _

_They chatted away the evening and hours later they had finally reached the topic every girl loved to talk about: Complaining about guys. _

"_I'm telling you, I can only feel sorry for you Temari. Shika is the laziest bum ever" Ino rolled her eyes._

"_Well not at everything…" Temari grinned. _

"…_You can stop talking now; I have a feeling I know where this is going. And this is so on my 'Things I do not want to know about my teammates' list" Ino regarded the other blonde suspiciously. _

"_Well I rather have Shikamaru than Naruto. Sometimes he just makes me so mad; I swear no one can be so stupid sometimes. Only yesterday we meet that transvestite, you wouldn't believe how long it took him to figure out 'she' was actually a 'he'" _

"_Well if he was good, there are some very convincing guys out there" Hinata defended her crush. _

"_Hinata I was there. He was not shaved and you could see his Adam's apple from ten meters away" Sakura said rolling her eyes. _

"_Well I would take rather both of yours than put up with Mister 'I'm too cool to smile' and endless green energy" Tenten sighed. _

"_Oh I would love to be in a team with Lee" dreamy eyed Karin readjusted her glasses. _

"_No way, you like __**Lee**__?! I knew it!" Ino pumped a fist in the air and high fived Temari. _

_Karin smiled wickedly "Yes and I already have a plan to make him mine" _

_After a few seconds of silence Temari finally asked carefully "What do you mean with you have a 'plan'?" _

"_Oh, well I have a five step plan to win him over. Now that he is no longer into Sakura I have the perfect strategy" _

"_I don't think I understand" the pink head said. _

"_Forget it forehead girl. It's too late you missed your chance, he is mine now" the Uzumaki girl raised her fist in a threatening manner. _

_The medic tried her best to ignore the 'forehead girl'; she would later kick Ino's ass for telling Karin about that. _"_Trust me that is not what I intended to do" she smiled through gritted teeth. _

_Hinata sensed the upcoming conflict "I – I think what S-Sakura meant was: How does y-your plan work?" _

"_Ah well…" a kind of scary look crossed the redheads face "As I said it is a five step plan. First step was getting Lee over Sakura. That wasn't too much of a problem, no offense Sakura" _

_Another vein popped at Sakura's forehead._

"_Now that this is done, I will bring step two in action. Get him to ask me out, step three he will ask me to marry him in an incredibly romantic way. Then followed by step four, having a kid and finally step five dying together in each other's arms." _

"_Ah of course that sounds…sufficient…I guess. Just one little question if you don't mind me asking, how are you going to get him to ask you out?" Tenten leaned closer. _

"_Well, in about a week I was planning that we go dancing together, then we will hold hands and exchange secret glances and then finally he will ask me out. According to my plan that will happen in about a month" _

"_Sounds great Karin" Hinata said politely. _

"_Yes and don't worry after I got Lee. I will help all of you to find your true love also" _

…"_I bet now you envy that I have Shika, Ino" Temari whispered in the other girl's ear._

…

_Two weeks later, Karin was extremely happy with herself. Everything was going exactly as planned. Yep, in a month she would call Lee her own. _

"_Ah, Karin-san, I need to talk to you" the green leaf shinobi that invaded her dreams was jogging towards her. _

…

"_S-Sakura, it really isn't tha- that bad" Hinata was a little bit desperate. _

"_I give it up, I can't cook for the life of it" frustrated Sakura almost knocked the plate out of Hinata's hands.  
_

"_Well…it is really healthy and not …that bad?" the bluenette tried to calm her. _

"_Oh, who am I kidding, I suck at cooking" Sakura waved her arms around. _

"_B-but you are good at making r-really healthy food" the Hyuga woman said in the most convincing tone she was able to. _

"_**Guys**__, Hinata, Sakura!" Karin ran to them at an amazing pace. "It's horrible, absolutely horrible. Devastating, I don't know what to do" she panted. _

"_What happened?" worried the two other woman exchanged glances. _

"_Lee just asked me out!" _

_Sakura and Hinata stared at her, what was Karin talking about? _"_Karin, I can be wrong but wasn't that kind of the plan?" _

"_Yes, but he wasn't supposed to ask me out before two weeks. This isn't according to plan. It's too early; I don't know what to do. This is not the plan!" _

_Sakura face palmed and Hinata sweat dropped. _"_Are you kidding me?" the pinkette asked in disbelief. _

_Karin kept mumbling about the plan and the two sane girls in this scenario shook their heads. Hinata decided to approach this in a different way._

"_W-well Karin, don't you think that was to be ex-expected. Lee is one of the f-fastest Ninjas of Konoha; he…he must have seen right through y-your plan and decided to accelerate it" _

_Karin's eyes began to sparkle "But of course Hinata-chan, you are right. Lee is such an amazing person and with his sharp intellect he must have tried to make it easier on me! Thank you very much!" _

_She turned and ran away in the direction she first came from "LEE-KUN! Wait for me!" _

_Sakura stared at her retreating form while shaking her head "Now I know why you are a diplomat and I'm not. I was that close to pummel her on the head"_

_Hinata smiled "I hope they will be happy" _

"_Oh I have no doubt in mind" the pink haired grinned and dragged Hinata to Ino's house. They had new gossip to share. _

_Indeed Sakura had been right. Lee and Karin hit it off really good. Naruto was the one receiving the down end of it. Lee was overjoyed that they were now "in-laws" and made no attempt to hide his glee. Both Neji and Tenten were a little bit relieved about having his attention focused on someone other than them and besides now that he had a girlfriend Lee sometimes even cut the team training short to train with Karin. Plus he stopped bugging them about wearing the suit. _

_Yes, Neji and Tenten really truly loved Karin too. They could be quiet disturbing when they overdid their youthfulness but other than that, they were just too fun to watch. _

_The only one happier than the couple themselves was Gai for his student was the first one to get a girlfriend. He rubbed that into Kakashi´s face for months._

_...  
_

"Our vacations ended early because Guy-sensei got sick. But before that we had so much fun! I´m telling you the water park is so cool and the Grand Hotel is amazing. We…"

Like a waterfall Karin´s word fell down on Naruto. From time to time Lee chirped in a funny comment. Naruto only understood half the stuff they told him, due to her really fast way of telling him.

Karin took a deep breath "…Anyhow we have to go now. We just wanted to get a 'get well soon' present for Gai-sensei. Bye Naruto-nii-san. See you soon"

And just like that they were gone again.

* * *

**Don't worry there will be more Naruhina to come :)**

**Tell me what you think about this unconventionall couple.  
**

**And thanks for reading  
**


	7. Chapter 4

**Last time I forgot the disclaimer, so here it goes: I do not own Naruto!**

**Because of the lacking Naruhina-ness of last chapter, here's an early update.  
**

* * *

After Lee and Karin had left to visit Gai in the hospital...or at home, where ever he was curing his sickness. Naruto forgot to ask.

He turned to the entrance of the supermarket; now that he could cook he also enjoyed shopping for groceries, maybe it was weird, but he didn't care. Of course he had needed more than the one lesson, but luckily for him Hinata was a great cook and she was willing to help him. It was the perfect opportunity for Naruto to get to know her better and to learn how to take care of his hungry stomach without relying on Ichiraku's all the time. When Hinata had helped him cook first, she had been doing a lot better with her stutter. Naruto smiled inwardly, that was something he had picked up about her, whenever she felt save with something it would disappear completely. For his liking however she still doubted herself in too many ways.

Naruto sure wasn't a perfect cook but usually it was pretty decent. Still if he had to choose he would want Hinata to cook for him all the time. Sometimes she even cooked ramen for him. Hers was better than Ichiraku´s but Naruto made sure he still ate there regularly. It wasn't that he stopped loving Ichiraku´s ramen any less, but he loved Hinata´s just a tiny bit more.

Smiling content Naruto entered the supermarket, shopping was really just part of the fun that was called cooking.

A minute later his good mood changed drastically. Naruto stood in the supermarket absolutely clueless. What the hell? He didn't come in two days and someone had decided to shuffle all the stuff. He had no idea where all the ingredients were hidden. If he found the guy responsible for this, he would…

"Naruto!?" A loud scream stopped his rant of revenge. A smile formed on his face when he saw the blurry pink head bounce to him.

"Sakura-chan I haven't seen you in like forever" he grinned at her.

"Same goes for you Naruto. What brings you into a supermarket? Did Ichiraku´s close up?"

His face was one of total horror "Don't ever joke about that" he said in a deadly serious tone.

Sakura laughed freely at his expression.

"So what are you doing now? Got some free time? Let´s have a coffee!" he asked exited.

Going over her schedule briefly Sakura nodded "Sure I got about an hour."

.

.

"So..?" Ten minutes later they sat in a café across the street waiting for their orders to arrive.

Naruto shot Sakura an oblivious look.

"What were you doing in a supermarket? Let me guess you ran out of ramen?"

Pouting he said "What? You don't think I can go to a supermarket for real food?"

Completely taken aback Sakura stared at him "Did you just say Ramen was no real food?"

Upset Naruto had to explain that he did not mean it like that **at all**! Ramen was the most real food existing. But thanks to Hinata he had started to appreciate other food as well.

"Say Sakura-chan what´s new with you?"

Brightly smiling she told him, she was technically leading the hospital now and that she and Shizune worked on a new training program for medic Nins. They would be responsible for it and right now there were looking for teachers. She was cooperating closely with the Konoha embassy to expand the program to the other nations in trade for something else.

The emerald eyed woman was pretty motivated to do this. The last years hadn't been easy on her, after the war Sasuke had vanished, alongside with, according to Karin, Orochimaru…once again.

It had been almost six years now and no one heard of him since. At first she was devastated and close to drifting into a depression but her friends prevented that from happening. Now, she always busied herself with work and if she had some time to spare she usually hung out with some of her friends, but she didn't have much time to her hand anyway.

Naruto watched her now shoulder long hair bounce while she was talking satisfied about her life. Still, seeing her constantly reminded him that his life was still missing someone, his **team** was still missing someone. He had failed to bring Sasuke back and Sakura was content but not truly happy. He couldn't help the guilty feeling taking over and he diverted his eyes to the floor. The promise he made to Sakura was yet to fulfill and he couldn't because there wasn't a trace of his former best friend. Nothing not even a rumor; for all they knew Sasuke could have died.

But Naruto just knew that wasn't the case, Sasuke was still out there and no one had a clue whether he still felt hatred for Konoha or decided to leave them alone. Slowly the smile from his face had faded, leaving a sorrowful expression behind.

Glaring Sakura noticed his lack of attention and gave him a `light` hit on the back of his head, causing him to almost drown in his ice coffee.

"Hey pay attention when I´m talking to you."

"Sorry Sakura-chan what were you saying?" apologizing he rubbed the hurting spot.

"I was asking how you are"

"I´m great Sakura-chan, Baa-chan gives me all the thrilling missions now. Oh, and do you know what I gave Hinata to her birthday, you already left so you didn't hear her say how it was the best gift ever. I was busy all week before finding the perfect present. First I went to… "

Leaning back she listened to him telling her about his search for the perfect gift and how Hinata had said the shirt was her favorite now. Oh yeah, and how she invited him for breakfast and that she was the best cook alive…

Sakura was getting irritated. Did she ask how Hinata was? Because that she knew that already, as a matter of fact she had coffee with the heiress two days ago. Blinking she tried to understand why Naruto wouldn't shut up about her, sure they spent a lot of time together but…Slowly realization draw in and a knowing grin developed gradually on the medics face. Well that was interesting; she definitely needed to talk to Ino about this.

"…you know we cook together a lot. And yes, Sakura I know how to cook, I even bet I'm better than you. But you know I just can't get a hang on the baking…"he trailed of allowing his thoughts to take over.

.

._  
_

_"Hi Hinata, what's for dinner?" interested Naruto peeked into her cart. He had seen her walking by in the supermarket and decided to say hello. _

_"Huh?" Hinata's head shot up from the shopping list "Oh, hi Naruto. That's not for dinner. I decided to make a cake for my birthday" _

_The blonde's ears perked up "You're baking? Oh, can you show me? I've wanted to learn that ever since you made that awesome cherry cake at Sakura-chan's birthday" _

_Hinata hesitated; she was a tiny bit concerned because he liked to experiment with the different dishes and flavors when he cooked. Baking however was completely different from cooking. But she knew she was lost when she looked into his pleading beautiful blue eyes. With an internal sight she agreed. Damn those eyes of his, she was such a sucker for them. _

_.  
_

_.  
_

_Half an hour later the pair was standing in Naruto's kitchen. "You have to follow the recipe by heart. No improvisation all right?" _

_Giving her his most sincere puppy eyes he sulked "Come on Hinata you don't believe in me? I can pull this off no problem. Trust me. You know exactly that I need you to believe in me. If you lose faith in me then who will support me?" faking a dramatic voice he struck a pose. _

_Not leaving her any other choice she twirled around, away from him to prevent him from detecting her scarlet face. Taking a few seconds and deep breaths to regain her posture, she forced the blush from her to go away. _

_"I´m terribly sorry Naruto, I will never doubt you again. Let's get started. First step the pastry. We need eggs, flour, sugar…" _

_Lining the ingredients up neatly, they started to get to work. Unfortunately it turned out to be a lot more work than he originally thought and Naruto started to get a little sloppy. When he beat the eggs he managed to spray half of them on Hinata. Snickering he gave her a towel to clean herself a little bit. _

_"You think this is funny Naruto?" the dark haired beauty asked sweetly. _

_"No I´m … sorry..?" trying to mute his amusement he pressed his lips together. _

_"I think you´re lying Naruto. But well if you think it is so hilarious maybe I should try it too?" giving him her most innocent smile she grabbed a hand of flour and tossed it in his face. _

_Speechless he gawked at her open mouthed. Never, ever had he expected the shy, fragile woman to do anything like that! Quickly recovering he smirked evilly and took the bowl with melted chocolate making sure it wasn't too hot anymore of course; following suit she grabbed the whipped cream. Facing each other they measured their chances._

_...  
_

_ An hour later the kitchen looked like a battlefield there was chocolate and cream all over the floor and some of the pastry was stuck on the wall. The two people resting on the floor were shaking with laughter their clothes and skin in no better condition than Naruto´s kitchen. _

_Standing up unsteadily Hinata examined her appearance. There was some whipped cream in her hair accompanied by some half beaten eggs and flour. Chocolate was smeared all over her face and clothes next to white powder of flour. But worse was that there was some undefined fluid inside her clothes. She suspected it to be pastry. Fortunately for her Naruto was in the same state as herself. _

_"What happened to you Hinata? Since when are you so heartless?" he accused whilst getting up. _

_While performing a desperate attempt to clean her hair she answered "Must be your influence." _

_"You make it sound like a bad thing!" his faked hurt tone made her look up "Come on admit it that was the most fun you ever had." _

_Not able to contain her smile she agreed helplessly. _

_Naruto smirked gleefully; Hinata looked so cute right now. She had the sleeves of her simple black shirt rolled up and thanks to their food-fight it was ever so slightly rode up to expose her hip bone before the view got blocked by blue jeans. Despite her effortless appearance she managed to look more beautiful than ever. As he watched her wipe away some cream from her cheeks just to have it end up sliding down over her neck slowly, Naruto licked his lips unconsciously as he watched the cream sliding over her smooth skin. _

_._

_.  
_

_.  
_

_Her hair, that had been neat and straight only minutes ago, was now tousled and a hot mess. Then again it made her look like she just got out of bed, and that made her look so sexy.  
_

_Without taking his eyes of the cream that had now almost reached the hem of her shirt, Naruto stood up from where he was sitting a feral smile adoring his face "Need some help cleaning up?" _

_Her pale eyes took in each of his movement s warily "No I'm doing just fine by myself. Thanks Naruto" _

_"Are you sure Hinata?" He took another step closer to her, now he was able to smell her natural strawberry scent mixed up with the cream and chocolate. It was irresistable and he could just eat her up, right there and then. _

_Their faces were only inches apart and she could feel his warm breath on her cheek as he leaned down to whisper in her ear "You know I would really love to help you" _

_A shiver went down Hinata's spine when she felt his head dip lower grazing her skin. Taunting her, he let his tongue ran over the skin on the side of her neck, taking in the sweet flavor of the cream. In addition to the flavor of her skin it was so delicious, he could feel himself getting addicted. _

_"Na-Naruto" a small moan escaped her lips. Naruto smirked against her soft skin. Letting his hands run down her sides…_

_"Naruto?" _

_"Mhmm…?"_

_Hinata was getting slightly irritated now. Naruto was completely spaced off with a really strange expression on his face. It made her skin tingle in a really good way. She waved her hand in front of his face, finally succeeding in snapping him out of Lala-land. A disappointed look crossed his face before he looked shocked and then just irritated. _

_"What were you thinking about?" the woman asked interested._

_ "…Uh…I…nothing really. I…I just thought it will take forever to clean up" he laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. _

_Hinata knew he was lying but decided not to pry. _

_It took the two of them almost two hours to clean up the mess and after they were done they were still cakeless. Naruto was glad Hinata was efficient when it came to cleaning up alone it would have taken him twice the time. Then again she was half responsible for it. Out of the corner of his eyes he examined her slender form leaning over to clean the pastry from the wall. _

_Why did he keep having those thoughts about Hinata? But, damn it, did she have to be so smoking hot? _

_Another glance told him that she was still busy cleaning the stain on the wall. The view almost left him drooling. _

_Did she always used to have such a nice backside? _

_Her long, nicely shaped legs stretched she tiptoed to touch the stain ending in a nice apple shaped bottom. Looking back he couldn't comprehend when he had turned around to take her figure in wholly. It was a mystery to him how she managed to look so incredible despite wearing a simple jeans and some loose fitting shirt. _

_The only skin visible was her slim arms and the cape of her neck. Her hair was in a sloppy since she had deemed it a lost cause after their fight.  
_

_He wouldn't have been able to stop his eyes from traveling further up her elegant figure even if he wanted to. The shirt was not able to hide her hourglass body; he could clearly make out the sharp contrast between her hips and her waist. Going up her back further he could see the shape of her chest when she turned ever so slightly. _

_Instinctively he licked his lips again when his eyes fell on the creamy skin on her neck, a spot of chocolate resting there innocently, begging him to be licked away. Naruto wondered how the dark chocolate would taste combined with her fair skin. In his daydream it had been incredible and was daring him to go over and try it for real._

_…_

_Satisfied with the result of her scrubbing Hinata turned around, once again her breath was caught in her throat when she found Naruto staring at her with the very same hungry expression from before. It made her shiver in anticipation and excitement, her heart beat went up. He didn't look as if he recognized she turned around and her thoughts got the better of her and she stared at him. _

_She admired his handsome face and body. His ever present orange shirt was combined with a black jeans. The shirt wasn't tight but she could still make out his perfectly formed abs and broad shoulders. His shiny golden hair never failed to make her want to run her hands trough it until she reached his neck, further down his muscled back… _

_Blushing violently she swirled back around. Closing her eyes she forced the images in the depths of her mind, into a place where she buried all of her hopes of her ever being more to him than just a friend. _

_Her whirl snapped the blue eyed Ninja out of his trace, self-conscious he averted his eyes to the floor, berating his mind for having such inappropriate thoughts about his best friend. To break the somewhat uncomfortable silence and to chase his previous thoughts away he joked "Well, I guess that was the first and last time you will ever consider letting me near a mixer again, ne Hinata?" _

_Feeling more at ease again she smiled at him apologetically "It was kind of my fault. Next time I will show you how it works before letting you use it" _

_"You make me sound like an incompetent moron" he whined._

_Dryly she informed that he sure had proven her wrong today. _

.

.

.

A vein popped up on Sakura´s forehead, who the hell did the moron think he was talking to? Spacing out like that for almost ten minutes, at first she thought it was funny but now she was getting annoyed.

"NARUTO!" hitting him over the head again, she watched with glee as the bump on his head got bigger. Served him right!

"Itai, Sakura-chan that hurt "grumbling he rubbed the bump furiously. Hinata would never hit him like that!

Shaking his head he cleared his mind from the image of the pale eyed beauty. Curiously Sakura addressed him wanting to know where he was earlier. For a moment he seemed a little at loss, before he acted strangely flabbergasted.

Naruto insisted to pay the bill before they parted ways. Sakura had to start her shift at the hospital and Naruto wanted to head back to the supermarket where he promised himself to show this stupid maze what an Uzumaki was made of.

Once again standing at the entrance he took one deep breath before entering the lion´s den.

* * *

**Tell me what you think.**


	8. Chapter 5

**5**

Hinata sat in her office going over the agenda for the upcoming visit of the Kazekage. Since she had become main ambassador of Konoha three years ago, she had made it her personal goal to stabilize the relationships between the villages. Up until now it had worked out greatly. Every country established embassies of the other ones.

Hinata's current problem was that the Konoha ambassador in Suna was dying from an illness and wanted to spend his remaining time with his family in Konoha. His replacement was supposed to be her sister Hanabi, Hinata was not exactly happy with it. She loved her sister dearly and did not want her to leave, but it was for the best.

So, now they would connect his annual visit to Konoha, which was complement by a visit from the Hokage to Suna at another time of the year, to the exchange of the ambassadors. Frowning she looked at the information she had about the sand village leader.

Yes, no doubt about it. 19 of January was the birthday of Sabaku no Gaara. He was going to have his birthday during his stay in Konoha. Well that meant a change of plans. Sighing she stood up and went to search for her sister.

.

.

It took Hinata almost an hour to find her sister, one of the reasons being that a distressed Hanabi had been looking for her older sister, too.

"Hinata I´m so glad I found you!" relieved Hanabi ran to her.

Well that didn't sound too good. Concerned she looked at the younger one.

"We kind of have a situation at the Suna embassy. Temari is freaking out!" the younger Hyuga woman took a moment to catch her breath.

"Last time I checked Konohamaru and his team played a prank on her and as a punishment they had to clean the house. Don't ask me how but somehow they managed to blow up the kitchen and well as I said Temari is… How do I put it? …not amused, you know"

For a second the dark haired woman closed her eyes. "Well no use in standing here, let´s go and sooth Temari. No wait… can you try and find Yamato? Maybe he can repair something, oh and also find a plumber or something. Wait, first send Shikamaru there and make it fast"

Grinning Hanabi turned on her heels, she did not want to trade places with Konohamaru and his team. Hinata had her own special way of making people regret their mistakes.

.

.

Three remorseful faces welcomed Hinata when she walked in the embassy, well that and one very angry Temari. Suppressing a groan she faced Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon first "I will deal with you later, please wait for me in my office"

They crept away looking guilty.

"I´m horribly sorry Temari-san, the damage done will be repaired as soon as possible. Of course I cannot expect you stay here without a functioning kitchen, therefore I would propose…" she didn't get to finish the sentence.

"Yo, what´s up? I had to get here all the way from the Hokage building and your sister was too much in a hurry to explain anything" the bored the voice of Nara Shikamaru, first strategist of Konohagakure, cut Hinata´s speech.

Temari`s face got an annoyed expression "What´s the lazy bum doing here? It's not like he would repair anything"

Hinata didn't even raise an eyebrow. You would assume after almost six years of dating, they had had secretly started dating even before the war, they were able to hold a conversation without the insults. But then again it was their way of communication and who was she to criticize them, she was single after all.

Hinata intercepted peacefully "I asked him here. I would propose for the time being you and your staff moved to the Nara residence. Given that Shikamaru has no objections, of course. The Nara residence provides the perfect place, they have the available rooms and it can offer you official offices as they are unoccupied at the moment. Also I assumed Temari-san you would prefer staying with your boyfriend instead of some strangers. Naturally you´re also welcomed to stay at the Hyuga household. It would have the same benefits as the Nara´s"

Temari´s brows furrowed and she let out a snort "Please we would have moved in together months ago if it wasn't for his laziness"

_Ah, so that´s why Temari seemed so tense when Shikamaru came._

Unmoved the male looked at the blonde before replying "It´s too troublesome to argue with you. You can stay any time you want, including your staff. But if you´re planning on staying permanently I would prefer if only you stayed not your staff"

With another glance at Temari's stunned form he turned around and left.

Starting to feel uncomfortable Hinata cleared her throat. Deciding inwardly that official business was done with she turned to the still frozen blonde haired woman.

"Temari?" softly she put a hand on her shoulder "I know this is not my business, but maybe you want to pack up and transport your stuff to the Nara house? And stay there" she emphasized gently.

Temari gave her a grateful glance.

"Oh and would you be so kind and tell me what the Kazekage´s favorite cake is?"

Blinking heavily the former sand kunoichi stopped in her tracks "Gaara? I…Well, I think he likes chocolate but I´m not really sure. We never had cake, so…"

Half an hour later everything was taken care of and Hinata stood in her office facing three very uneasy looking Chunin. Sighing heavily she sat down and examined each of their faces. Making her disappointment clearly seen, she said "Well, what do you have to say for yourselves? I strongly assume there is some kind of explanation or at least an excuse?" questioning she looked in every one's eyes.

"We didn't mean for this to happen ok? It was an accident and you make it look like we are some super evil villains. It wasn't on purpose."

Impassive Hinata took his outburst in. So Konohamaru chose the offensive form of defend vigorously agreed by his companions. Interesting, Hinata thought.

"I have a question for the three you? What do you think you did today?" Her voice was gently, not reproachful or accusing. It was just a simple question.

"We ACCIDENTLY made a mistake. And then things got out of control. And a kitchen burned down. It´s not like someone got hurt" again using the offense strategy Konohamaru got loud.

The woman behind the desk nodded slowly "You are indeed right, Konohamaru-san. But before that you played a prank on an official foreign ambassador. Konoha was very fortunate that it was Temari, because we have exceptional relations to Sunagakure and Temari is in a relationship with a Konoha Ninja"

"We didn't mean to blow up the kitchen, it was an accident with the explosive tags, jeez" Konohamaru interrupted.

"That's not the point, Konohamaru" Hinata emphasized "The only reason you were even in that kitchen was because you pranked an official representative of another village"

"Because she made Masu cry and we wanted to cheer him up" Moegi said quietly "We weren't trying to be mean"

"Besides Temari is mean, she…"

This time Konohamaru stopped talking when Hinata's glare reached him "As I said before we were lucky since it was Temari, however if it would have been another village Konoha could have lost their alliance and the peace could have been endangered"

All three Chunin cringed at that thought.

"What you did today put Konoha, the village you vowed to protect, in yet another danger. What if Temari got hurt or worse killed caused by your actions? A foreign ambassador injured in Konoha by leaf shinobi, wars started out of lesser origins. I´m not telling you all this to make you feel guilty or ashamed, but every one of you should take the consequences of your actions and I believe one can only bear the cost by knowing them. You are old enough to know this and personally I think you are too old to be playing pranks on someone. You are Chunin! So, were you aware where your activities may be able to have led?"

The three shook their heads subdued, an uneasy feeling in their guts rising up.

Standing up Hinata faced the window "I didn't think so. I am very disappointed in you. You are Chunin of Konoha and I expected you to be more mature. It saddens me to think you have so little respect for our work that lead to this stable peace. Naruto would not be happy about that. He worked hard for this and what you did today put all of this in great danger"

Moegi had tears welling up in her eyes and Udon didn't move at all in shock. Konohamaru appeared most troubled "I´m sorry Hinata-chan. I didn't know. From now on I will pay more attention to my actions and I not to prank any foreigners anymore. I´m very sorry Hinata-chan, please don't look so sad anymore. I will make it up to Temari-san"

"We too!" Moegi and Udon agreed teary eyed.

Smiling she faced them again "I´m glad to hear that."

"Will you forgive us Hinata-chan?" three pairs of big tearstained bored to her very soul.

Laughing slightly Hinata nodded "But of course! Now get out and apologize to Temari-san"

…

Satisfied with herself she sat down again.

"Don't you think you went a little hard of them?" climbing through a window Hanabi grimaced "That was pretty evil"

Not bothering to inform her sister once again, that she was welcomed to use the door anytime, Hinata raised a questioning eyebrow "I didn't even punish them"

Giving her sister a dirty look Hanabi snatched a cookie from Hinata´s desk. "Oh please, you are more subtle than that. They are gonna feel guilty for days. Making you sad is like kicking a puppy. I always feel horribly afterwards. You completely abuse that knowledge. You're the queen of subtle punishment. But when it´s not me it definitely is more fun"

Munching the cookie happily she grabbed a second. Since Hanabi was already here Hinata took the opportunity and let her sister known about her plans of throwing a birthday party for the Kazekage.

"Since you will join him on his way back and take over the position of ambassador I thought you might want to get to know him better. Such a party is the perfect opportunity"

Considerately the brunette nodded "I assume it would be. Besides…" she grinned "…I rock every party."

Hinata had to fight down a groan "Promise me to behave, please. I don't understand why you have to behave so inappropriate sometimes, when you can be such a perfect diplomat"

"Easy it's because being predictable would be boring. I prefer to be more variable. Well sis, got to go. I have important things to do, so see ya"

"Hanabi wait. I really appreciate that you were willing to take Riu´s place. Thank you for that"

Hanabi rolled her eyes "I know I know. It was really hard to find a replacement since most Shinobi don't like the climate in Suna. Hinata we went over this a million times. The old man fell ill and wants to spend his last months surrounded by his family in Konoha. Relax I´m sure I will like it in Suna; I'm going to make those boring meetings explode with fun. Trust me"

She vanished before Hinata could tell her that maybe she should lay low in Suna since she had heard from Temari that the Suna council and their elders were… well she didn't want to repeat Temari´s words so she settled for 'difficult to deal with' instead. Oh well whatever, Hanabi had a special 'charm' she was going to be all right.

.

.

.

A white hand caressed the head of a deep purple snake softly, a smile etched in his face. The room where the dark haired men sat in, was dimly lit and no sunlight could get in because they were underground.

"You taught me everything I need to know, give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you like I did last time?" a voice asked from the shadows.

"Ah, Sasuke-kun, I was already wondering when it would come down to this once again" Orochimaru didn't bother to turn around "But I will humor you and answer your question. First of all, last time you 'killed' me, I could not use my arms and was lying on a bed with not even half my power. Right now, even if it took me five years I am back at my prime, you may have become stronger in this time as well; however you are neglecting one important fact"

He stood up and finally faced the dark haired male, with the piercing red Sharingan. "Do you want to know what factor you are forgetting Sasuke-kun?"

The other male made no indication of answering so the snake Sannin continued "I know you Sasuke-kun, you have trained under me and I know of every move you are able to make, while you do not even know half of what I'm able to. More importantly, you don't need to kill me, because we do share the same goal. Inevitable we will face off in due time, because I have not yet given up on making you my ultimate vessel. As for now however, we both share the same goal: to destroy Konoha! If we continue to work together we will accomplish this goal"

"I don't need your help, Orochimaru. I am more than capable of defeating Naruto on my own"

"Defeating the Leaf's Jinchurriki? What purpose would that serve? Konoha's strength does not origin from his power, though he is a factor in it, I'll admit"

"You are wrong; once Naruto falls the Leaf will follow"

A small smile tugged at his thin white lips "Possible, but doubtful. The leaf has extraordinary relations to all of the other five villages, that is where their power comes from. Naruto may have helped to established those links, but he is not the one we should concentrate on yet"

Sasuke snorted "You are blind; the other villages only trust the Leaf because they are stupid enough to place their trust in the dobe"

"Oh, Sasuke-kun, it is not Naruto, that has negotiated with the other villages. We should focus our effort on someone else. The ambassadors of Konoha, they are the link in the villages, one the trust in them is dispersed, we can attack Konoha without having to feat a counter attack from the Leaf's allies"

Sasuke stayed silent, taking in Orochimaru's words.

"But I believe that our concern should foremost concentrate on the one person who really did establish most links and she is the one we should take out first. Her words may be able to convince Konoha's allies of ill-play. Konoha's main ambassador and the person responsible for foreign relations…"

* * *

**I really want to thank all the people who review this story. I love reading what you think, so please keep telling me :)**

**Also it does help to know that there are some people who really do read the story **

**So keep reading and reviewing. **

**Thank all of you very much**


	9. Chapter 6

**Just for your information: I will change the title of the story soon. So don't be surprised.**

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**6**

Hinata was beat. She was tired and felt like a rock just hit her. The last weeks had been horrible on her. She barely got enough time to sleep for a few hours a day whilst she had taken care of the arrangements for the Kazekage´s arrival and agenda. She had to plan his birthday party and try to prepare her sister for her diplomatic position in Suna. The stress had left its visible dents on the young woman.

It didn't help matters that she hadn't seen Naruto in days. Not because he was on some important mission or something, it was because she was too busy. It made Hinata feel uncomfortable itchy. No matter how hard she tried to tell herself it was for the better since she was trying to get over Naruto anyway, sometimes she felt like her attempts were hopeless and she was into too deep, to ever be able to love someone else. She couldn't shake off the feeling of longing that flooded through her body every time she saw him.

She had missed him these past few days, she missed the small things: seeing his smile or hearing his voice. She missed how he made her laugh, Hinata felt like she hadn't laughed in days. In fact she indeed hadn't laughed since she last saw him.

...

To say that Naruto was anxious was an outright understatement. He wasn't his usual cheerful self. Instead he was oversensitive and reacted unusual aggressive. Worst of all he had no idea why. So he didn't get a mission in a week but there was Gaara´s party to look forward to. And he couldn't complain about being bored because Tsunade demanded he helped her with paperwork since "it is an essential part of the Hokage´s work and Naruto you need to learn that part too". Naruto was sure she was just too lazy to do it herself and used him, but then again she did name him her official successor two years ago. Tsunade had told him she wanted to make him Hokage as soon as possible but he needed to be less "fast spoken" and think more. He even had to take diplomatic lessons!

And when he wasn't doing stupid paperwork he was hanging out with his friends. Not with all of them though, Naruto hadn't seen Hinata in what seemed like forever.

Naruto was aware that Hinata was very stressed at the moment. But he just wasn't used to her neglecting him; usually whenever he came by and wanted to hang out she always rearranged her schedule and made room for him. Now she was always busy and didn't have time for him anymore. This change didn't sit well with him at all.

What he even liked less was how tired Hinata looked. He was willing to bet the content of Gama-chan that she didn't get more than a few hours of sleep a day.

And then there was the fact that he was fairly sure Hinata didn't eat properly either and that after she had told HIM how important the nutrition for a good health was. The bangs under her eyes were starting to get as dark as Gaara's and that was not a good sign.

Naruto scowled to himself, he didn't like how Hinata wasn't taking care of herself. And worst he could do nothing about it, never in his life had he felt more helpless and frustrated. He hated that she didn't have time. Naruto knew fully well that Hinata wasn't happy about it either but for her it didn't seem like such a problem not to see him. Somehow that thought stabbed him somewhere near his heart.

As for him, Naruto was a mess but it wasn't fair to blame his temper on Hinata; it wasn't like she could change anything about it. Besides why would he be in such a foul mood because he hadn't seen her for some time? When he was on missions or something he sometimes didn't see her for more than a month but he was always fine with it.

Why would he even think his behavior had anything to do with her? That was just absurd. So he liked talking to her and maybe his mind drifted to her more than what was considered normal but that was just because…

Because what?

Naruto couldn't think of a reasonable answer. Anyhow he had to find a way to get rid of this gloomy mood.

Training hadn't helped the last days but maybe he got lucky today. Leaving the Hokage building, by jumping out of the window to avoid Tsunade from catching him sneaking out, he ran straight into the Hyuga heiress, well more like he almost knocked her over.

"Hinata!" he beamed at her and before he could stop himself he engulfed her into a sudden hug. Once again Hinata was glad that

a) her long her was functioning as a curtain and

b) Naruto was so oblivious,

because even after being close friends with him for nearly five years her blush never failed to plague her at unexpected physical contact with the guy she had loved for years. But thanks to her constant familiarity with him she had manage to stop fainting at his surprise attacks and her blush faded faster. Not to mention her stutter was gone.

"What are you doing here? Did you want to visit me? You got some time? Let´s hang out!" widely grinning he wanted to drag her away.

Gently she pulled out and smiled apologizing. Naruto´s smile dropped when she explained to him, that she was here to pick up Tsunade and welcome the Kazekage at the gate. But when she invited him to come along, because he was Hokage-to-be and greeting diplomats was part of the job, he eagerly jumped at the chance to spend more time with her.

…Oh and to see Gaara again of course.

And besides tomorrow evening would be Gaara´s party and when that was done she was going to have more time for him. Feeling a lot better now, he walked back into the building with her to get the Hokage.

…

Content Gaara sat in the comfortable chair in his room in the Suna embassy. The visit to Konoha was more pleasant than he had assumed, then again he had been similar surprised the previous year and the year before that. Thinking about it the visits were more pleasant since the Hyuga girl had taken the main ambassador spot three years ago. Thanks to her the meetings went by smoothly and she worked efficient. She planned his days and remembered to leave enough free time for him to spend some time with his sister and Naruto.

Hinata, Gaara remembered, was very considerate and he surely hoped her sister was like her when it came to negotiating. Hinata was a very good diplomat and negotiator that much he could tell. Straightaway the Kazekage understood that he was glad Konoha and Suna had such splendid connections, he did not want to be the one receiving the bad end of her negotiating. Usually she managed to make both side feel like winners. Her contracts were flawless as far as he could tell and from what he had heard the other countries were very fond of the Hyuga as well.

Gaara was very pleased; they were ahead of schedule so he would be able to leave sooner than expected. The new Konoha ambassador, Hyuga Hanabi, well she was …interesting. That was something he had already figured out when he meet her a few years ago. He didn't know much about her other skills tough. She seemed different from her elder sister. But he couldn't exactly pinpoint whether that was a good or a bad thing. Sure he liked Hyuga Hinata's way of handling matters but Hanabi was…well interesting. He simply couldn't find a better word to describe her yet.

There was only one thing irking him.

They wanted to have a so called 'birthday party' for him. He attempted to grasp the concept of both 'birthday' and 'party'. As far as understood it described an informal gathering of friends and family in order to celebrate the day of one´s birth. What he didn't comprehend was how being born was an accomplishment. If he wasn't mistaken they should rather celebrate the mother than the child but he was told there was going to be chocolate so he didn't complain.

…

"Hinata, I don't mean this in a bad way, but I keep getting the feeling we might overdid it a tad" amused Hanabi gazed over the gigantic buffet table "No one is ever going to believe we made all of this food ourselves" - _Then again, seeing how tired we look, maybe they will._

The room was decorated in a modest manner, a few balloons in white and red and deep brown curtains. The room filled quickly and it didn't take the Hyugas long to spot the form of the Kazekage by the door. Warmly Hinata and Hanabi welcomed him and congratulated him.

"We made you a cake…" Hinata trailed of unsure just how to explain what they made.

Her sister took over and gestured vaguely over her shoulder

"Unfortunately we weren't able to figure out your favorite, so we had to improvise. We got chocolate cake, chocolate cream pie, chocolate cookies and brownies. But if you prefer fruit we got banana, strawberry, apple, raspberry and orange. Oh right we also got cherry. Of course the cookies and brownies are also available in different fruit flavors. We got a few dry cakes and pies with different toppings. We made a bunch of muffins too. But if you´re not into sweets we baked different variations of salty stuff…Well that's about it I´m afraid" tilting her head sweetly she looked up to him.

Gaara blinked and blinked again. He saw the table arching under the amount of food. It was only owned to his years of practicing self-control that his mouth wasn't hanging open. He couldn't quite process what just happened, since when did people go out of their way so far to please him, without being intimidated of course.

He didn't know what astonished him more the fact that she could talk so casually to him or the amount of food that was apparently cooked or rather backed only for him and his party. No one had ever cooked for him, much less baked. Well that wasn't absolutely true, the cook´s in the Kazekage monument did cook for him, but they did get paid for it so it didn't count.

"So you made all of this for me?"

Smiling brightly both girls nodded.

Hanabi added "Sure - but you do realize that the buffet is kind of for everyone. You can take the leftovers with you and well… you get me. I can make you a batch of cookies anytime" she winked at him.

Gaara was not sure what the proper reaction was, no one ever talked to him like that. Not even his siblings. He was at loss. And why did she wink at him? What was the meaning behind that?

"Oh right! I have something for you" Hanabi reached into her bag and her hand reappeared with a box. It was wrapped in red paper with a brown ribbon on top of it. "Happy birthday, Kazekage-sama"

Unsure what was to do Gaara looked at her and then at the box that remained stretched out to him. He had no idea what was expected of him.

"Take it, it's a gift" Hanabi said smiling brightly and Hinata nodded approvingly.

"Is it a bomb? Are you trying to kill me?" he asked suspiciously.

"WHAT? No! Why would you think that?" Hanabi looked sincerely shocked at his accusation.

"Kazekage-sama, I assure you that this is not a murder attempt. It is tradition that the birthday kid receives present from the guests" Hinata said a little worried.

Quite confused of being called a 'birthday kid', he reluctantly took the box out of Hanabi's delicate hands. Clueless how to proceed he looked up "Thank you that is a very nice box"

Hinata managed to stifle her laughter, Hanabi however didn't even try. She giggled freely "No, that is not it, it's inside the box. You have to unwrap it first"

*What did you give him?* Hinata looked at her sister, no words leaving her mouth.

The Byakugan had more secrets within that most people realized. This was one of those techniques - no one could understand or use this special ability except the Hyuga clan. Only those with the Byakugan could do what they did this very moment and even then it took years of training and a deep bond between them to accomplish it. They were able to talk to one another by looking into the others eyes.

Hanabi smiled *Same thing I got Dad and Neji*

Hinata froze right there and then, that could only be a joke. Her sister wouldn't… "Kazekage-sama, don't!" Hinata blurred out without thinking.

"Aha, it is a bomb!" Gaara immediately stopped in his tracks. With a glare he turned to Hanabi, strains of his sand swirling around. Hanabi on the other hand didn't seem scared in the least.

"No it's not a bomb" Hinata clarified "but actually that would have been better" she mumbled the last part.

"I don't know what's so bad about my gift" Hanabi pouted.

Warily the red head finally unpacked his gift. He stared at it; never in his life was he more at loss. If he wasn't so taken of guard he would have as well blushed. But then again he was the Kazekage and more importantly he was Sabaku no Gaara and, he did not blush!

Hinata looked absolutely mortified while Hanabi grinned. Gaara stared at the book in his hands 'The secrets of Kamasutra'.

"It's a pop-up book" Hanabi explained happily.

Gaara really didn't know what to do. "Thank you" he finally said.

On the outside he looked unmoved despite the turmoil inside him. He was almost tempted to smile at the enthusiastic girl with the bright eyes that smirked so widely at him.

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**Tell me what you think!**


	10. Chapter 7

**I don't own Naruto.**

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**7**

So far the party had been going exactly as planned, if Hinata put the little incident with her sister in the back of her mind. Her gaze wandered over said woman who was talking to the Kazekage and his former Sensei Baki, who had accompanied him to Konoha. Hinata had decided to do without music, in order to avoid the pressure of having to dance, something she personally profited from. Unconsciously her eyes were searching for a glimpse of blonde in the mass of brown, black and the occasionally red heads. It was weird that he wasn't here yet, because Naruto seemed to look forward to it a lot when she talked to him yesterday. And he wasn't here for sure, because if he was she would have heard him. Maybe he came when she went to the bathroom, or maybe he was sick…She should go and check on him, despite being rude and leave the…

"Hi stranger" Naruto startled Hinata by sneaking up on her from behind.

"Naruto! I was already wondering where you were" Hinata smiled at her favorite blond, and their eyes locked. He never failed to make her heart skip a beat and when she looked into his deep cerulean eyes, she sometimes felt like drowning in them. No matter how much time she spent with him, the flutter in her heart that went down to her belly did not cease. He always made her feel so warm and mushy inside, even more so, since they hadn't seen each other very often during the past weeks.

It made her painfully aware of just how much she loved him and how hopeless it was and how she would never manage to get over him. Instead the more time they spend together the deeper she fell for him. That was something that seemed impossible at first, since she felt like she was already so deep down.

Today he looked especially handsome in his deep blue shirt with a simple black tie and matching black trousers. The blue of his shirt was mirrored in his eyes emphasizing them even more than usual and it was tight enough to show off his broad shoulders and toned arms. Only his voice snapped her out of her daze.

"I just talked to Gaara. Is it true that your sister gave Gaara a book on Kamasutra?"

Hinata groaned "You heard? Does everyone know?"

Naruto laughed, damn why did he have to miss that? He took forever to decide on what to wear. Hinata had put a lot of effort in the party and he wanted to honor it by looking at least presentable, but still he would have loved to see the expression on Gaara's face "You know sometimes your sister just rocks. So, Hinata now that this whole thing is over, how about lunch tomorrow?"

The pale eyed beauty smiled "I'd really like that. Let's say noon at Ichiraku's?"

Nodding fiercely Naruto agreed fully hearted. The bad mood from the past days completely lifted from him.

"Hinata! Come over" Sakura yelled across the room and with an apologizing smile she excused herself.

...

Standing at the buffet Naruto felt overwhelmed, Hinata sure outdid herself this time, well maybe Hanabi helped a bit, but this amount of food… No wonder she had been so worn out. His eyes swept past the party guest straight to this best friend. Hinata was talking to Sakura and Ino across the room.

Naruto let his eyes wander over her form. She looked amazing today, of course she did look amazing every day, but her casual clothes didn't do her enough justice. Tonight the midnight blue long dress that she wore made her hair shine even more than usual. He was often fascinated by her hair. Depending on how the light hit it, it sometimes looked dark black or midnight blue, once or twice it even appeared dark purple.

Similar to her eyes, he mused not taking her eyes off her, when the sunlight hit her directly it was a soft violet, most of the time it was a light grey. He liked it, always surprising him, yet always gorgeous.

Right now her eyes looked like liquid silver, creating an amazing contrast to her deep blue hair that was pulled into a complicated braided bun that left the creamy skin on her neck bare. The dress was a simple neck-holder dress that was not too tight but still accented her figure well. Naruto smiled a bit wider, Hinata never wore anything too tight, somehow that made him feel strangely relieved.

"You better be glad Neji is on a mission, because if you keep ogling poor little Hinata-chan like that he will have your head, Naruto-nii-san" Karin looked at him entertained.

Embarrassed to have been caught, Naruto covered it up with a cough and mumbled something along the lines of not knowing what she was talking about. After a few minutes of uncomfortable squirming on Naruto's side and unconcealed amusement on his cousin's side, he finally changed the topic to something she would ever want to talk about "Where´s Lee? Didn't you guys come together?"

Karin looked suspicious for only a second but in the end couldn't help to talk about her beloved boyfriend "He will be here any minute now. But Naruto-nii, you haven't complimented me yet, and I put so much effort in… " She stopped and her eyes started to sparkle. "LEE-KUN!"

Naruto was going to become deaf.

"Karin-chan!"

What happened next was something everyone wished they had never seen. Everything happened in slow motion.

Open armed they ran toward each other. The waves hit the rocks under the romantic sunset as they fell in each other's arms, engulfing in a deep kiss.

Hanabi was the first one to find her tongue "Does anyone else see the sunset?"

Numbly the others nodded.

"What happened to his sensei he used to do that with?" Gaara asked, remembering their unique relationship.

Hanabi answered dryly "I´m afraid we will find out."

"LEE! KARIN!" Tears streamed down Gai´s face "Oh, the beauty of young love!"

"GAI-SENSEI" two voices answered him.

Joining them in their hug there were more tears and snorts.

"You have got to be kidding me!" disturbed Kiba turned away "It was kind of fun when it was just Lee and Karin, even if it was disturbing, but this is just wrong"

"I´m so gonna need therapy" Naruto closed his eyes in desperation.

"She's your cousin you know"

"Thanks Sakura I did not need a reminder of that" Naruto turned to the woman that had joined them just now.

"So Kiba, where is Karui? She is the ambassador of Kumo, shouldn't she be here?" Naruto greeted his canine friend.

Kiba shrugged nonchalantly "She will be here in a bit"

.

.

.

_The bar was dimly lit but gave of a cozy vibe. The rookie nine, well eight plus Sai, and team Gai were shattered in the room. _

_Hinata was sitting on a table near the bar sipping away on her bitter lemon, well aware that compared to the other girl she looked plain and boring but she had always felt uncomfortable in a skirt or dress, so she wore a simply t-shirt and faded jeans. _

_From time to time she wished she was more confident maybe then Naruto would look at her like he looked at Sakura. Or rather used to look at Sakura, Hinata had noticed that his romantic advances toward the pink haired medic ceased a lot and even stopped years ago. To be honest she had not seen him pursuing a relationship with her since the war ended and that was more than three years ago. Taking a look around the bar she saw Naruto was talking to Karin and Sakura in a corner, the rest of her friends were shattered in small groups as well but Kiba was coming over to where she was sitting._

"_Hey Hinata-chan"_

_Hinata's eyes narrowed, Kiba never called her Hinata-CHAN unless he wanted something. _

"_What do you want, Kiba-KUN?" _

"_Well you see I was wondering …What color is your underwear?" _

_Hinata almost choked on her drink, she coughed and tried to contain her posture. However she did not blush, no matter how much Kiba embarrassed her, the only way to make Hinata blush by anyone other than Naruto was the mention of his name or when the blond was around to hear all of her embarrassing remarks._

"_What? Why do you want to know that?" _

"_Well" Kiba grinned wolfishly "it just came up in a conversation" _

"_In what possible conversation would my underwear ever be a topic?" Hinata asked more interested than mad, but still exasperated. _

"_Now that you mention it, I have no idea how we got there…anyhow, what color is it?" Kiba just wouldn't let it drop. _

_In disbelief she asked him if he honestly was under the impression she would tell him anything about her underwear. _

"_Fine I don't need to know the exact color. Just tell me whether it is white or not" Kiba said compromising._

_Hinata sighed, the question was did she really want to carry this discussion any further or if she just told him and he would leave it would be over "It is not white alright" _

_This was one of the sometimes where Hinata was sorry that she wasn't more like Sakura or Ino, if she would be, Kiba could be peeling himself off some wall right now. Instead he just sat down opposite from her and grinned "Can't believe you told me" _

_The bluenette groaned defeated. It didn't take long for them to chat casually, not long after that Hinata noted that Kiba was very distracted and just refused to talk to her face. _

"_Kiba would you be so kind and stop staring at my chest?" annoyed she dropped her head and tried to catch his eyes with her own. _

"_Well, I´m sorry but since you're sitting, I can´t stare at your ass so I´m settling for the next best thing" he defended smugly. _

_Rolling her eyes she gave him a pointed glance. "Why don't you look at some other girl's…bottom area?" _

_Suppressing a laugh at 'bottom-area' Kiba smirked "Because that wouldn't be the next best thing" _

_The girl gave up and shook her head. Suddenly Kiba´s brown eyes looked past her to the door. Curious Hinata twisted her head to look at him. _

"_Hinata you´re safe now, I just found a better next best thing" _

"_No!" Hinata pulled him back down "Absolutely not Kiba. She is the ambassador of Kumo. She is off limits, don't you dare to sleep with her and then forget she exists" _

_Sulking Kiba looked at her "You know what you just did right? You made her forbidden fruit. It´s like she´s the princess and I´m the undeserving servant and we have to…" _

_Hinata looked at him in disbelief "Kiba please, I only became Konoha's foreign affairs coordinator a few months ago. Karui is only here because I asked her to take the spot .It was very difficult to convince Kumogakure to trust us enough to send an ambassador" _

_During the war Karui and Hinata had been assigned to the same division, that was how they became friends surprisingly quickly considering the special history the Hyuga clan had with Kumo. Hinata looked at Kiba pleadingly, it wasn't just that she was an important diplomat but she was also her personal friends. Hinata didn't want Karui to get hurt. _

_Groaning Kiba told her he wasn't gonna do anything horrible to her. Damn Hinata's eyes! But a little flirting was allowed, he decided. The twenty year old diplomat looked after her dog loving friend worrying._

_...  
_

"_Hi there hot stuff" leaning casually against the counter Kiba grinned showing his canine teeth. _

_Angrily the red head turned to him. Karui was about to reply with a snippy comment, but the idiot with the lame pick up line was seriously good looking, so she revised her decision "You really think that this is going to get you into MY panties?" _

_Stunned Kiba was at loss for words for a second. Then he chuckled. A challenged, he didn't have that in a while. _

"_You know you´re eyes are pretty amazing" _

_Pitiful she let out a little sigh "You know what would be amazing? If you would stop with the pathetic pick-up-lines and buy me a drink" _

"_Your wish is my command, hot stuff"_

_Laughing faintly she turned back to the counter. _

_This woman is fascinating__, Kiba glimpsed at her from the corner of his eyes. _

_They had talked for an hour and one thing Kiba knew for sure this woman was as far away from an innocent, sweet girl as one could be. _

"_So Karui, my place or yours?" _

_She stood up "Both I´ll go to mine, you go to yours." _

_Throwing his head back Kiba barked a laugh, before he followed her outside._

.

.

_It was two months later when Karui realized there was more to their relationship than she wanted to admit at first._

"_It´s not like we ever said we were exclusive" groaning Karui put her head between her hands. _

_Comforting Ino put her hand on the golden eyed woman´s shoulder "Will you tell me what happened?" _

_In a shaking voice Karui told Ino that she saw Kiba flirting with some brunette on the streets. She ran her hand through her hair "I´m being stupid. I was the one who didn't want a commitment. I was the one who proposed the whole 'friends with benefits', 'no strings attached', 'strictly physical' liaison. I told him specifically no feelings permitted or we would end it before someone would get hurt. And now look at me… I´m a mess" _

_Ino looked at her friend sympathetically. She had warned her multiple times that her 'concept' of the perfect relationship was bound to fail. "Maybe you should talk to him. I mean yes Kiba is an insensitive jerk sometimes and a player but when it counts he turns out to be a real nice guy" _

…

"_Seriously Kiba if you´re just here to annoy me than you're more than welcomed to leave" Hinata told her former teammate sternly. _

"_I've got a problem Hinata!" uncomfortable he sat back down after having repeated the process of sitting down, getting up, pacing around and sitting back down multiple times already. _

_Waiting for him to continue Hinata looked up from her paperwork. _

"_Yesterday this really hot woman started to flirt with me. You know badly, she really wanted to go at 'It'" he stopped talking._

"_Yes I see your problem now. Must be hard to be harassed by gorgeous woman all day long" wryly Hinata averted her attention to her paperwork again. _

_Urgently Kiba threw his hands in the air "That´s not the problem, the problem is that I didn't give a damn. It was nice and all but I…I wasn't turned on by it at least. I never once let an opportunity to have sex slide. Maybe I´m sick…" _

_Hinata couldn't stop herself from laughing. "How is it going with Karui?" _

"_What has that got to do with anything? But for your information it´s great" he watched her intensely "I know you aren't happy about our relationship but I promise it won´t affect your work" _

"_Kiba, that is not what I´m concerned about" her eyes soften visibly "Can I ask you something? Is this 'relationship' with Karui only physical?" _

"_Yes, of course!"_

"_Really? Think about it Kiba"_

_The brown haired dog Nin frowned; at first he was convinced it was solely physical but the more he talked about his 'contact' to Karui the more Hinata made him realize that the physical aspect was far less than it appeared. Last week they painted his room together and they spend a lot of their free time in each other's company. _

"_Kiba" Hinata stopped his rant about how awesome she was with Akamaru. "Do you like her?" _

_Confused he stared at her "Sure I like her. I wouldn't sleep with her if I didn't" _

_Hinata suppressed a face palm "No, I mean are you in love with her?" _

_Kiba shook his head firmly "Are you crazy? Karui made it very clear that there were no feelings allowed"_

_Hinata didn't believe one word, feelings weren´t something you could prohibit "Please Kiba, don't lie to me. The two of you spend any minute you can spare in each other´s company. She waited in a hospital room for three hours with you when Akamaru was sick, you already consider giving her a puppy for her birthday, she helped you paint your apartment and you stopped being interested in other women. The two of you can deny it all you want this is not just some casual fling. YOU. ARE. IN. . RELATIONSHIP. You obviously like her. You just told me for half an hour how awesome she is. . !" _

"_That's just ridiculous. The only reason why I slept with her more than once is because she is a vixen in bed. I mean, hell she is ready to try out anything. Oh, and because she is hot as hell. Yes sure, she is also funny and caring and outgoing and witty and she has this adorable way of talking to Akamaru and yes he loves her, maybe she also has a great sense of humor. And when she laughs…" Kiba stopped._

"_Oh fuck…I´m in love with her!" Kiba´s shoulders slumped down and he sank back in his chair as realization hit him hard._

_Hinata leaned back coolly and rested her chin in her hands "I rest my case" _

_Contrary to her Kiba was about to freak out. He muttered constantly along the lines of "how did that happen?", "I´m such an idiot", "what do I do now?" mixing with curses and swears. _

_After finishing her internal 'I-was-so-right'-happy dance, Hinata finally took pity in the mess before her eyes "Kiba, you do know there is an easy way to solve your problem. Just talk to her"_

_Looking at her like she just told him that Akamaru transformed into a cat, he snorted "Yeah right. It was her who said that there are no feelings allowed"_

_Insistent Hinata tried to convince him that Karui was in mutual emotional state as he was. "Just talk to her!" she finally concluded._

_Abruptly Kiba´s mood went up "Yeah, you know I call that plan C" _

_Not anticipating any good Hinata narrowed her eyes at him. _

"_For now I will go with plan A. I´m just going to ignore my feelings until they go away" he explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world. _

_Raising both eyebrows she nodded sarcastically "As long as you have a well-conceived strategy. Just for my personal amusement was would be strategy B? " _

"_Making HER fall in love with me and get her to admit it first!"_

"_And why isn't **that** strategy A?"…_

_._

_._

_A few days later the couple in denial decided to go out. The club was packed (no surprise since it was the only one in Konoha) and sticky. _

"_You look smoking tonight, hot stuff" Kiba gave her an appreciating all over look._

_He sure wasn't lying. Karui wore a matt gold dress that accentuated her eyes, it ended mid-thigh and fitted like a second skin with matching high heels that made her legs look indefinite. Her red hair was put up in a ponytail, showing off her elegant neck. Growling Kiba took note of the many male eyes fixated on his…escort. _

_Unbeknownst to him Karui was having similar problems, Kiba was a handsome man and a lot of woman seemed to share that opinion. His triangle tattoos combined with his intense eyes completed with his fangs gave him a dangerous look. And his body with his broad shoulders and tall form did not give any reasons for complains. Gritting her teeth she stepped closer to him. He put an arm around her bare shoulders. He hated to admit it but dancing with her was a major turn on. _

_Why was everything this woman did had to be so downright sexy? _

_Right now he was calculating his chances of her being willing to have sex in the restroom. Judging from his former experience with her, she would love it. _

"_Hey Kiba can you get us drinks. I need to use the restroom and I´ll join you at the bar" _

_Karui stared at her reflection. She hated all of this, pretending to be fine with a fling and that his glances at other women didn't bother her. If they were a real couple she would have hit him over the head three times already. But she couldn't because they never said that they were being exclusive. Taking a deep breath she exited the room. Elbowing her way through the mass of people she scanned the bar for her brown haired 'friend', only to find him flirting heavily with some violet haired girl in a much too tight black dress. That skank had her hands on his knees and was currently allowing him a good look into her cleavage. _

_The Kumo kunoichi felt like all air has been knocked out of her. All she wanted to do right now was to go over there and tell the stupid bi… woman to take her hands of her man. And then she wanted to scream at Kiba for being an insensitive jerk, make a big scene and throw a fucking glass with some undefined liquid in his face and then she would storm out. _

_Karui trembled with rage and she clenched her fists. _

"_Why do you look so unhappy, doll-face? He´s not worth it if he´s letting a body like yours go" an arm snuck around her waist and she was pulled close to a sweaty body. _

_Great! Now some drunk was going to pay. That was perfect, instead of punching Kiba she could let out her aggressions on…_

_Unnerved she remembered that she was a representative of Kumogakure in Konoha, so starting a bar fight probably wasn't the most brilliant idea. Therefore instead of beating the crap out of him she settled for a clear statement and told him to fuck off. When she felt his hand making its way down to her butt it toke all out of her to stop herself from seriously hurting him._

_He´s not a ninja, he´s not a ninja,__ the mantra repeated itself in her head. Before she could shove the intrusive drunk away Karui felt herself being jerked from him. _

"_Can I help you?" Kiba had grabbed her wrist and addressed the guy with dangerous frost in his voice. _

...

_For what felt like the millionth time Kiba pushed the annoying girl´s hand from his legs. Where the hell was Karui? _

_Well,__ he thought dryly, __at least now I know how Sasuke used to feel._

_He swore to himself he would never harass a woman like that ever. His gaze wandered to the restroom doors again. _

_How long can a woman possible need in the restroom?__ he wondered. _

_Slowly he was getting worried; maybe she didn't find him and was looking for him. He decided to take a look around to see if he could spot her somewhere. It shouldn't be too hard; there weren't many redheads in Konoha._

_His eyes narrowed and he felt his pulse quicken when he finally saw her getting felt up by some jackass. _

"_Can I help you?" he pulled Karui to him and looked his counterpart square in the eyes. _

"_I just thought since you can´t take care of your girlfriend maybe I should show the sweet what a real man feels like" when the jerk attempted to reach out for the woman in his arm Kiba lost it._

_...  
_

"_Great job, dumbass" Karui yelled at him "You got us banned for a whole month, just because you had to play hero and start a fight" _

_They were on their way back from the club since they were thrown out after the hit Kiba had delivered to a VIP guest._

_Enraged Kiba screamed back "Well excuse me for saving your sorry ass from getting molested by some pervert"_

"_Like I needed your help! I had everything under control before you came and meddled in my business" angry she crossed her arms, generously overlooking the pleasant feeling that he got jealous over her. The thought made her feel all good and warm, that was not something she wanted to look into too close. _

"_Yeah I could see that. Or maybe I misinterpreted the scene and he was going to be your next number in bed" Kiba spat out. _

_Karui gasped for air "Oh excuse me for believing the same rules apply for both of us. But evidently you can just go and sleep with every girl who didn't make it up a tree in time, while I have to sit and wait for you. For your information I was just about to give that idiot a piece of my mind and not taking him right on the dance floor. But you know what, even if I was; it is none of your concern, it´s not that you care anyway, so leave me the fuck alone" _

_She turned on heels and stormed away. _

_Kiba panted furiously, if she was under the impression he was going to run after her she was deadly wrong, he was not going to follow her like a lovesick puppy. He was right and if anyone should apologize it should be her! _

_Unfortunately his body disagreed with his very rational mind, for his feet had already set in motion to follow her. Kiba cursed creatively before giving in and went after her at full speed. _

_Karui was mad; who the hell did this insolent jackass of a guy think he was. How could he say something like that to her?_

_Rude bastard, at least now she knew how he really felt about her. She was clearly just some slut to him. _

_The red head really needed to punch something, preferably some good-looking, dog-owning idiot of ninja. Karui cursed herself when she felt a tear falling down her cheek, quickly she wiped it away. _

"_Karui wait! Karui! Damn it, wait!" Kiba gripped her wrist and twirled her around to face him, she jerked her hand away. Distraught he ran his hand through his hair. "What the hell is wrong with you?" _

"_Nothing! Everything is perfectly fine, Kiba" her voice made hell freeze over. _

_The male sighed and explained to her that he wasn't flirting with the girl in the club and just for her information he hadn't slept with other women since they started seeing each other "Happy now?" _

_Flustered Karui told him she couldn't care less what he had been doing with other women. Kiba was at the end of his wit´s, desperate he asked "I really don't know what you want me to do?"_

_Karui dropped her gaze. _

_Hesitating Kiba stepped closer to her "Will you tell me what´s really wrong, hot stuff?" _

"_I can´t do this anymore, Kiba. We have to stop that." _

_His grip on her wrist tightened painfully "I don't know what you're talking about" he said through clenched teeth. _

"_I´m sorry but I don't want to do this anymore" _

"_What are you talking about? Why the hell are you saying this? Where does that shit come from?" his voice got loud. His hands were shaking her shoulders, as if trying to wake her up._

_Mimicking his volume she shouted "It´s not that easy Kiba" _

"_I just want to know what your fucking problem is" _

"_My problem? My problem?" Karui felt her voice getting hysterical "My problem is that I like you." _

"_Well, I like you too" he screamed back._

_Karui blinked "Good" _

"_Yeah, good" he agreed still in the loud voice mode. _

_Out of breath they stared at each other, before they burst out laughing. After they calmed down Karui turned to Kiba again "So…? That means we´re…like a couple?" _

_Kiba grimaced "Meaning with all those ridiculous stuff like anniversary´s and double dates, probably with Lee and Karin" he groaned. _

_Karui´s golden eyes glittered as she stepped closer to him. Running her hands up his chest letting them rest at his shoulders, she looked at him seductively. _

"_So…what are we gonna do with the rest of the night?" _

_Wolfishly he smirked down at her "I believe we will think of something."_

Ever since that day Kiba and Karui were going strong and Hinata was for once glad that Kiba had ignored her plea.

Hinata was very happy with herself. The Kazekage seemed to enjoy himself and surprisingly he and her sister were engaged in a deep conversation. She was glad that the Kazekage didn't seem to mind the 'Kamasutra' debacle.

She smiled when she saw Kiba´s form from behind, he was talking to Naruto, her heart fluttered in a well-known manner, and they appeared to have a rather heated conversation. Not wanting them to overdo it and cause a scene as they did before, she stepped to them.

"Hinata, I was already wondering if you forgot me!" happily Kiba swamped her up in a hug.

Looking her up and down he whistled "Well don't you look ravishing tonight."

Hinata couldn't fight the blush that took over her face, how could he say something like that in front of Naruto?

Normally she didn't mind but it was right in front of Naruto and Kiba knew exactly that was the only way to make her blush. Avoiding looking at her beloved blond she thanked Kiba, therefore she missed the look that crossed Naruto's face.

"Well don't you let your girlfriend hear that, she´s going to be jealous" The voice of Yamanaka Ino saved Hinata from further embarrassment on Kiba's part, something the dog lover seemed to enjoy and since it only worked in front of Naruto he obviously felt like abusing the situation. Behind her she could see the pink hairs of Sakura making her way over to them.

"Don't worry I know he wouldn't" everyone spun around to see the grinning face of Karui leaning against a wall.

"Oh, really is that so?" Hanabi asked mockingly, her and Gaara strolling over "And just how would you know that?"

"Oh please, you should have heard him when I suggested a threesome with Hinata" Karui explained nonchalantly.

… … …

Death silence followed her statement.

Hinata was too shocked to even move a muscle, Ino blinked in disbelief, Sakura´s mouth invited all the flies around for a visit, Hanabi was speechless, the first time someone ever experienced that, Naruto instinctively took a protective step forward to Hinata's side an unreadable expression on his face, even Kiba seemed shocked. Only Gaara´s ever stoic expression didn't change.

As expected Hanabi was the first one to find her voice "Wow so what do you say, sis? I would take the offer?"

Karui completely unaware to the chaos she caused perked up interested "Really? Well, I guess if Kiba…"

The smirk was wiped off Hanabi´s face.

"Stop that! Look at poor Hinata" Sakura pointed at the Hyuga heiress, said face had turned crimson with mortification "I don't even want to imagine how I would react if you had suggest such a thing to me"

Carelessly Karui put an arm around her boyfriend and gave him a sly grin before saying "Then you are glad to know that you won´t have to worry about that to ever happen"

The pinkette's eyes twitched angrily "And just what is that supposed to mean?"

Karui tilted her head "That I don't want to lay you!" she deadpanned.

Indignant Sakura sucked air in, hard "So what? Are you saying that I´m not hot enough to have a threesome with you and Kiba? I´ll have you known that there are a lot of women who would be more than happy to have me! Right, Ino?"

"Yeah, I would have a threesome with you any time" endorsing Ino stepped demonstrative next to her best friend.

Wide eyed Hanabi let her gaze wander between everyone "Best party ever!"

Kiba nodded approvingly and asked incredulously "Am I the only one getting turned on by that?"

Hanabi laughed at that and turned to Gaara. The Kazekage stood unmoved from the scene that played before his eyes. The younger Hyuga rolled her eyes; softly she elbowed his side and grinned up at him "I bet that gave you something to mediate about"

He blinked at her blankly and then she could see confusion blinking in his eyes before his face went back to his impassive mask again. Hanabi sighed.

"Well, after this I´m going to need some alone time in the restroom...If you know what I mean" Kiba announced.

"**Alone** time?" Karui blinked at him in the most innocent way she was able to.

"Damn, I love you hot stuff" Grinning like a mad man he led her to the restrooms.

"Remind me, to never use that restroom ever again" disgusted Naruto turned his back to them.

The only one unmoved was once again Gaara.

"Oh come on!" Hanabi said exasperated.

* * *

**I wonder if people are still reading this...**

**Well anyway, incase someone does: Hope you liked it :)**


	11. Chapter 8

**Since I was so happy because of the many reviews I got, I decided to give some joy back. Therefore a small early update with exclusive Naruhina fluff :) **

**Thanks, to everyone who reviewed.**

**I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

**-8-**

Naruto couldn't sleep. His mind kept wandering back to the party. It upset him to no end how Kiba had been flirting with Hinata. Dog breath had a girlfriend! And why did she have to blush when he had said that?

She never blushed anymore! Fuming he sat up and fought back the blanket.

Hinata never blushed so why would she blush around Kiba; she didn't even blush around him anymore!

He buried his face in his hands and groaned, why did it bug him so much? Fuck, what was wrong with him.

Scanning his room for a diversion his eyes got caught by the red covered book. The photo album Tsunade gave him five years ago. He had stopped counting how often he looked through it. It was filled with picture showing his parents. Some of them were taken when they were children, then how they were growing up and finally pictures of them as a couple. The last one however, was his favorite: His father had put an arm around his mom and also in the picture was her round pregnant belly, so practically Naruto was in the picture as well.

He felt the familiar lump in his throat, closing the book he stood up, suddenly left with the feeling of not wanting to be alone. Naruto grabbed the photo album he went out the door.

He just walked around aimlessly for a while, it was the middle of the night and the streets were empty. Later he couldn't explain how he ended up at Hinata´s doorstep. Hesitating he knocked at the door delicately, it was probably too silent for anyone inside to hear and it was late, Hinata would be sleeping by now.

It was stupid of him to even knock, selfish to want her to jump awake and dedicate all her time to him in the middle of the night. Especially after he knew that she barely slept during the last time. But he had missed her, the last weeks he almost didn't saw her at all. No matter how selfish it sounded he wanted to see her now! He jumped back when the door suddenly opened.

"Naruto?" drowsily Hinata rubbed her eyes.

His breath got caught in his throat.

Her hair was messy and hung around her in wild strands. Her perfectly shaped body was only protected by the thin material of short cotton pants and a simple white tank-top. He could make out her form clearly against the dim lights inside. Her eyes were still not fully opened and with the light illuminating her in the background her eyes shone in beautiful lavender, while her hair shone as black as the midnight sky. Naruto forgot how to breathe, something he could blame Hinata for, since she looked absolutely breath taking.

Slowly Hinata felt the sleep leaving her body. Naruto looked at her with darkened eyes that made goose bumps appear all over her body. Noticing the red book in his hands she asked him to come in.

Once again Naruto was amazed how she just invited him in, not questioning why he would turn up at her doorstep in the middle of the night.

"Would you like some tea?"

Nodding to her, he sat down at the table "I´m sorry I woke you. Oh and I hope I didn't wake your sister"

Hinata waved dismissingly and told him there was no one who slept more deeply than Hanabi. According to Hinata it took an explosion next to her to wake Hanabi.

Wordlessly she handed him a cup and sat down at the opposite side.

"So your sister is going to leave tomorrow. You okay?" Naruto took a sip from his cup.

The petite woman smiled sadly "Yes, but I´m going to miss her. Hanabi drives me crazy but she´s my sister. I love her. It´s just going to be weird without her, I never lived alone before"

Naruto sat still for a moment before answered with a sad smile of his own "Yeah"

Hinata looked up and suddenly felt like a complete fool, Naruto had been living alone for all of his life and there she was complaining.

"I hate being alone some times. You know when I come home from a mission there is no one waiting for me and I feel lonely" he told her quietly.

Concerned Hinata reached out and laid her hands on top of his bigger ones.

"Ah sorry Hinata, I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable" he scratched his head nervously.

Gently she looked in his deep blue orbs and told him that he could tell her anything and she would never be uncomfortable. He smiled gratefully before his mood shifted in only a matter of seconds. Hoping up and down excited he asked her to come ever so he could show her something.

…

"Wow you sure look a lot like your dad" Hinata smiled down at the picture of Namikaze Minato.

She heard Naruto mumble something about how he looked way cooler than his dad, which made Hinata giggle. It took them almost a whole hour to get to the end on the book. Naruto told her funny stories he heard from Tsunade about his parents. And when Jiraya pooped up in some of the pictures he'd tell her about his adventures from their time together.

Hinata had a great time, mainly because Naruto was so happy to tell her everything about his parents. Of course, she had already known who they were since Naruto had told her about it. But they never had a deep conversation about them like now. At some point they had moved to the couch because it was more comfortable. Tenderly her fingers brushed over the last picture

"Your mom was beautiful, I love her hair. It looks so strong and that color, I wish I had that"

The man next to her beamed like a little kid "Yeah she totally was. Did I ever tell you that I met her? Ok listen…."

…

When Hanabi exited her room early for once the next day, she was met with the most endearing picture she had ever seen. Smiling from one ear to the other she silently got her camera, because this scene was meant to be captured. Naruto rested sprawled out on the couch with Hinata on top of him, her head was resting on his chest and one of his arms was put around her waist to prevent her from falling. Both of them sound asleep.

Briefly Hanabi wondered if that meant Hinata wasn't going to make breakfast, before she shrugged. Since she would wake them when she worked in the kitchen it was probably best to eat out this morning. Given, Hanabi was a little disappointed not to spend her last morning in Konoha with her sister, but if the result was that she was going to be the aunt of loud, blond Uzumaki-Hyuga kids in a future not so far away, she was willing to sacrifice it.

Seeing Neji expression when the first blond Hyuga was born and he had to babysit was so going to be worth it.

On second thought maybe she could go to the Hyuga complex and sponge her breakfast from her father alongside with spending her last day in Konoha with her dad. As quietly as she could she closed the door, Hinata was a very light sleeper.

…

Inside Hinata stirred slightly and snuggled more deeply into her cushion, it was so warm and she felt oddly protected. On a normal day she would have opened her eyes, but the tiredness of the previous week and the mysteriously warmth around her made her fall back into her slumber.

Naruto woke up because there was something tickling his nose, at first he refused to open his eyes and face the day - feeling too good in the state he was right now. The air smelled unusual good, like strawberries and vanilla ice cream. Nope, he really didn't want to open his eyes, but the tickling got worse. He scrunched his nose and rubbed it. It didn't take long for him to realize that whatever tickled him was hair for sure.

He froze; someone was lying on top of him, now that he realized this as a fact, he also felt his arm hugging a body part that didn't belong to him. Cautiously he cracked one eye open. The first thing he saw was an ocean of midnight blue hair spread out on his chest. There was only one person with hair like that - Hinata.

Intuitively he pulled her closer, when he felt her shiver. He couldn't help the smile that crept in his face. He wanted to stay like this forever.

Going to bed with her, waking up next to her, eating with her, telling her all about his day, laughing with her, coming home to her, Naruto wanted to hug her and kiss her and…

His breathing stopped.

What was he thinking? Why did he always think about her such a way? Why did he always feel that knot in his stomach when she was near? Why did his heart flutter like that? Was he…? No, that couldn't be it?

No!

Was he in love with Hinata?

It did feel similar to when he had liked Sakura but then again it felt totally different.

Shit, he didn't know what to do? Usually he would talk to Hinata about things he couldn't quiet grasp and then she would help him so that he could figure it out on his own, but he couldn't tell her THAT!

She moved her leg up a little inevitable moving her knee up his thigh making Naruto tense up. His body reacted to hers automatically while his mind screamed at him to get the hell out, take a cold shower and clear his head, but most importantly **get out** before she woke up and noticed his not so subtle reaction to her body pressed against his. His body and heart and stomach disagreeing strongly with this opinion, but his mind was unwilling to give into their temptation.

Naruto clenched his jaw, he was one of the best shinobi in the village, the next Hokage, and he should be able to leave a sleeping woman´s apartment without getting caught. Easier said than done with his body in his physical 'state' that he currently was in, he figured out a few seconds later.

It was suddenly getting colder and colder; Hinata shuddered and pulled her legs closer to her chest. Her hands instinctively searching for her blanket to wrap it closer to her and Hinata was very confused when she didn't find it anywhere. And why was the pillow suddenly so uncomfortable? Hinata turned violently in her bed only to almost fall down to the floor. That's when she noticed that she wasn't in her bed.

Hinata looked around drowsily, why did she fall asleep on the couch? That never happened before. Hinata remembered Naruto coming over in the middle of the night, a smile adoring her face at the memory, and they had looked at photographs of his parents.

Had she been too tired to go to bed after he left?

Weird, she didn't even remember him leaving... Hinata shook her head; there was nothing she could do about it now. First of all she had to wake Hanabi. Her sister was supposed to leave today after all.

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**Thank you for reading. I would be grateful, if you could notifiy me of my mistakes, since I'm not a native speaker. You probably figured that out already, though...**

**Tell me what you think!**


	12. Chapter 9

**Well, first of all I really want to thank everyone who took the time to review. It makes me so happy and really motivated to update soon. **

**To those that I can't PM: **

**There were two Guest reviews I'd like to answer.**

**1. I know about the whole genetic thing, and completely agree with you. However I don't think that our scientific logic applies in Naruto. I mean we got green hair , pink hair... The laws of physic don't apply either, so I decided to do whatever I want :) No seriously I get that, but I don't really think it matters that much.**

**2. Thank you so much for making me notice my mistake. It was really nice of you and I was able to correct it immediatly. Should you find anything else please let me know.**

**To forbiddenluv4Naruto: Thanks a lot for your review. It made me really happy. And if you could point out the mistakes I'd be grateful-**

**I don't own Naruto.**

**For the record, I'm really not happy with this chapter, but I read it like ten times and it doesn't get better, so bear with this and I promise it'll get better.**

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**-9-**

Shaking her head vigorously the young woman tried to get the white snowflakes out of her pink hair. "Unbelievable" she muttered under her breath. Why did it have to snow now?

Sakura had figured they were over that already but now winter had decided to come back at full force. After she felt like she got rid of most of the snow Sakura entered Ichiraku's, it provided two important things she really needed: food and warmth.

Before she even got to sit down she found Naruto sitting in his favorite ramen restaurant, fidgeting with his soup instead of slurping it down like a hungry wolf. This scene made Sakura stop dead in her tracks. Something must be seriously wrong.

The pinkette sat down next to him and ordered her ramen for herself. When he didn't acknowledge her, she was both pissed and worried "What the hell is wrong with you? You sit there like you just saw a ghost"

His appetite had left him this morning and he shoved the bowl away "Oh, hi Sakura. It´s nothing"

She made it very clear that she did not believe him in the least and that she would not stop asking him until he spilled she crossed her arms and stamped with her foot impatiently.

_Hinata would never pressure me like that… Ughh, stop thinking about her, damn it. _Naruto groaned at his own thoughts.

Cornered by his former teammate he gave in and told her about his confusing feelings. Shaking her head from time to time Sakura listened to him. To her, his guy was hopeless "Oh please! Naruto even a blind man can tell you are in love with her"

He tore at his hair "But when I was in love with you it didn't feel like that"

The idiot really strained her patience, she huffed "Well, congrats genius. That is because you never loved me!"

She could see the protest making its way to his mouth, so she continued "Don't be stupid Naruto. I was like a prize in an internal battle for you to beat Sasuke. You were way too obsessed with Sasuke back then to even realize someone else. It was all about him, Naruto. It was never about me. There is no way you could have truly loved me. For god´s sake Naruto you were twelve, if anything that was a childish crush. Because let´s be honest I was and am incredibly beautiful. Of course you liked me"

Flipping her hair back she smiled satisfied. Silently he looked at her, taking in her words. Chances were she was right, since Sakura was a lot smarter than him.

The more he thought about it the more he admitted that when he had wanted Sakura to like him it had always linked him to Sasuke. Not once did he think about her without his thoughts drifting to his former best friend and rival.

But did that equal that he was in love with Hinata? The big green curious eyes of his friend next to him forced him out of his mind "Thanks Sakura. But you know I didn't like you because you were pretty"

He didn't need a second to notice it came out totally wrong.

Threating she raised her fists a dangerous deadly aura surrounding her "So you don't think I´m pretty."

Protectively he raised his arms "No, no you are very beautiful. But there are a lot more things to like about you than your looks. It might had something to do with Sasuke but there was still a reason I chose you. I'm not that shallow!"

She softened and she laughed a tiny bit flustered "Well if that's the case…" she hugged him smiling brightly "Thanks for that. I got to go. My shift starts in a few minutes"

Exhaling slowly Naruto relaxed relieved. _Close call, she was about to hit me! _the blond thought.

…

The moment Naruto was out of sight Sakura dropped her smile. She had lied to Naruto; her shift at the hospital had just ended. For a moment the pinkette just stood there closed eyes trying to calm her shaking body.

_He_ had been gone for more than ten years;_ he_ had tried to kill her more than once and yet only talking about _him_ put her in an unstable state.

Tears were leaking uncontrollably out of her eyes.

"Sakura!?" alarmed Hinata quickened her pace; she had been on her way to the Hyuga estate where she assumed her sister to be "What is wrong? Are you hurt?"

Sakura shook her head and let Hinata lead her back to her place. Minutes later a hot cup of chocolate was put in her hand.

"I´m fine, really" her shaking words betrayed her.

"It´s Sasuke isn't it?"

Sakura´s head shot up, eyes widen with the unasked question.

_Her expression reminds me of Naruto´s whenever he thinks about Sasuke _Hinata put an understanding hand on the Medic-Nin's shoulder.

Finally Sakura broke down sobbing - for years she had held it in and now she had reached her breaking point. She had made almost everyone believe she was over Sasuke but the scar in her heart never truly healed instead it was ripped open constantly, starting to bleed again.

Hinata had fell silent allowing Sakura to let it all out while her thoughts raced through her head. If she did what she wanted to do so badly, Naruto would hate her and never talk to her again. But…hesitating she glanced at Sakura again.

For months she had this feeling this uneasy feeling about Sakura. The way her head dropped ever so slightly when Sasuke came up or how she faked a smile and forced her happiness. Being a diplomat had taught her to pay attention even to the smallest details and so she had paid a closer attention to her. There was one possibility that may could help Sakura, but it was a long shot and…Naruto would never forgive her.

This time she was going to do the right thing. Naruto had suffered all those years because she was too afraid to grow a backbone and help him, she would not let it happen again. This one time it wouldn't be about him, it would only be about Sakura. Hinata had stood by for years and left Naruto alone with his pain. She still had nightmares about it.

"Listen Sakura, I´m not going to pretend that I understand why you love Sasuke because I don't. But I do understand how helpless you feel. You can pretend all you want but I can see what how bad it really is for you, because I understand you"

"What do you mean? I'm fine I just…" Sakura tried in a hopeless attempt to convince Hinata that everything was fine, but even Sakura didn't believe herself.

Hinata smiled sadly "Sakura, please stop lying. I have hated myself for years. I hated my weakness and how I was only a burden to everyone. I felt so desperate and useless and I always wanted, no - needed someone to save me, because I wasn't strong enough"

"Hinata, are you crazy you were a great kunoichi and you were always trying your best. Besides I was the useless one"

"No that is not true, Sakura. You are not like me. Even now you try to be strong and don't let anyone know about your feelings. It's about Naruto isn't it? You don't want him to know how you really feel because you don't want to hurt him"

"Yeah" her voice was shaky and barely above her whisper "it's my entire fault to start with if he didn't make that stupid promise, then…" a humorless laugh went past her dry lips "Because I was completely useless"

"Just take a look at yourself, Sakura. How can you say that? You are the best medic Nin in Konoha, about to surpass Tsunade. You have saved more people than most hospitals altogether. You are an amazing person and you do not need the acceptance of a single man anymore. You surpassed most of us. I don't know what happened to Sasuke but he is not the boy you fell in love with any more and more importantly you don't need him anymore. You don't need him to prove your worth something. You are great without his acknowledgement"

Sakura started to cry once again "How does he do that? He tried to kill me! Why can´t I just let him go? I just always…I just thought that one day he would come back and we would be happy. I could see him smile again. He doesn't even need to be here to kill me. He's just out there somewhere, knowing he can break me. How does he do that? He ruins my life, he leaves me bleeding and he…He is just fine. He doesn't care"

"You're trying so hard to keep yourself together, always pretending to be busy and now you're just tired and exhausted, your body has reached its limit and you break. But Sakura, you are better than that"

Sakura shook her head and interrupted "No I´m not. You don't know how often I just wanted to leave. Run away and leave everything behind, to forget about all of it and just run. When I walk the streets of Konoha I just feel haunted. I tried to shake it off, but when I think about him I just…"

This was pretty much what Hinata had expected "I know what you mean. You bound your happiness to one person and now you feel like you failed because his happiness is yours and you can't reach him. I…Sakura, you revolved your life around him, but he can´t make you happy. The only person who can do that is you. Trust me, I lived more than half my life trying to make others happy instead of myself, I didn't care about my dreams, so I took the dreams of my father or Naruto and made them mine. Because I was just as lost as you ...But it doesn't work that way" bitterly she laughed.

Intense green eyes locked with Hinata's pale ones "I guess we are more similar than I thought"

"Yes, I guess we are. You know, I always felt like I sucked at being a kunoichi, not because I´m not able to perform my Byakugan perfectly, but because deep inside my heart I didn't want to be good at it. It wasn't my path; I am not a good shinobi because I didn't want to be one. I told myself I wanted to but I didn't. That´s why I constantly felt like a failure and I hated myself for it…"

"Still you were a good kunoichi, and you could have been great"

"I guess I could have been, but my father was right, I wasn't cut to be a leader of a fighter for that matter. But Sakura you are much stronger than me. You made your decisions all your life. You don't need to bind yourself to someone else´s acceptance, like I did"

"I made chose to be a kunoichi but still I was terrified when it got down to it. And at first I was frozen and useless, trust me. I let Naruto and Sasuke take the hits for me. I was probably more of a liability than you ever were"

"I guess we both were not the best example on being strong. You know I used to ran away a lot but I don't believe in running away anymore, but you have to find yourself inside all the pain you feel. And sometimes it is easier when you gain some perspective first. There is an opportunity to do that and I can offer it to you. I believe you would appreciate some space to think?"

"Some space? What exactly do you mean?" Sakura was getting a grip on herself and her eyes dried.

"There is an exchange program with Suna, Hanabi is responsible for the details, but it provides a possibility for both nations to learn from each other. We would send you as one of our best Medic-Nins, since they lack medical knowledge, they will send us a handful of their best architects to improve our infrastructure. It would last for six months after that you will be free to decide whether to stay and continue or come back if you´re ready"

"Oh" Sakura looked mildly surprised at the perspective.

Hinata continued "Of course should you want to take it, we would have to ask Tsunade and I guess Shizune for their approval. We cannot decide it over their heads; you are the number one medic in the village after all"

Sakura was about to reply but Hinata demonstrated to wait "I will not accept an answer before the end of this month. I really want you to think about all the consequences, I do not want you to make a rash decision. Think about the pro´s and con´s. There is no right or wrong and whatever you do it won´t be easy, going to Suna will not solve your problems"

Sakura kept quiet, too wrapped up in her mind.

After Sakura left Hinata sat down deeply wrapped up in her thoughts, Naruto would hate her when he found out about this. Hinata just gave his best friend the opportunity to leave Konoha. Worst part was that Hinata knew fully well what that meant to Naruto. He was going to be devastated, but she didn't feel like she had another option. Sakura needed this.

Sakura was lying to herself and working herself to death. It wasn't long until the Medic would break down and Hinata just couldn't stand by and watch. Not anymore. She was done with that. Her lacking backbone had caused so much harm in the past, especially to Naruto.

Sometimes the guilt still overwhelmed Hinata. It pained her to think of all the times Naruto was lonely and felt hated and shunned from everyone, just because she didn't have the courage to be strong for him. Because she had been to chicken to talk to him and befriend him like she wanted to so badly, he had suffered more than he needed to. Her throat tightened at the thought of all of his cries and tears. She couldn't suppress the tears that were now falling down freely.

Why did she have to be such a coward? She had no right to call herself his friend, she had been one of the few people that actually saw his agony behind the goofy mask, yet she didn't do anything to help him. She had been too scared, not because of what her father of the rest of the village told her, but simply because she feared rejection. She had been scared he was going to laugh at her and yell at her to go away, that she was a freak and weak and unworthy. Hinata wiped her tears away and tried to even out her breathing. She did not deserve Naruto's friendship and if he hated her after this she just got what she really deserved. But, oh kami, going on would be so much harder without him…

…

"_Hinata?" her father's voice interrupted the comfortable silence at the table. She looked at him just in time to see him look up from a letter he had just received "You may leave and see the Hokage" _

_Her eyes widen, what did Tsunade-sama want her for? Ever since she dropped out of the active ninja duty more than two years ago she had never been summoned by the Hokage. _

_._

_._

"_Hinata" the warm brown eyes of the Hokage looked in her own pale ones "I have been very impressed with your work inside the Hyuga clan. Ever since they decided to take a diplomatic approach with you as the main diplomat, your clan and Konoha alongside have greatly prospered. And now that you even accomplished the abolishment of the cursed seal and the union of the family, I want to congratulate you and put forward a proposal. _

_Would you be interested in taking the position of the coordinator of the diplomatic relationships for Konoha? You would consequently have to give up your job inside the Hyuga clan, so you will need some time to discuss this with your family. I will grant you a week?" _

_Her head was buzzing and she felt very faint. Tsunade had said that without giving her mind enough time to catch up. Dizzily she nodded and left. Did Tsunade-sama just offer her what Hinata thought she did?_

_A few days later Hinata still couldn't comprehend what had happened. Her clan had agreed immediately after she had told the elders, happy that a Hyuga will hold such an important position, gaining them more influence in the process. The only one still doubtful was Hinata herself. She walked around Konoha and the longer she watched the city she loved the heavier her heart got. When the tears started to fall she didn't even realize. She needed someone to talk to…_

_Shaking Hinata raised her fist to knock, she didn't know what had possessed her to come here of all places, but she just needed him. She just needed to talk to him. _

"_Oi, Hinata? Wha…What happened? Who do I have to kill?" Naruto asked after seeing her tear-stricken face. He wasn't joking, Naruto was deadly serious. Whoever dared to hurt Hinata was going to have to face him and he would not go easy on them. No one made Hinata cry, no one!_

_Hinata smiled softly in return "No one, it's…" she hesitated "I - I shouldn't have c-come here. Sorry for bo-bothering you"_

_Naruto grasped her wrist before she had turned fully "Yeah right, like hell you'll leave like that. Come in!" _

_When it came to Hinata, Naruto had learned to read behind her smiles, because she made a point about not letting people see when she felt blue, not wanting to take people down. Hinata stood in his apartment feeling a little lost, because she didn't know what she expected from him. _

"_Would you like some tea?" Naruto asked trying to hide his worry._

_Hinata simply nodded and Naruto disappeared in the kitchen. Her cream grey eyes wandered around his living room until they caught sight of a book. Gently she pulled it out of his bookshelf; there weren't a lot of books. Mostly books on chakra control, probably gifts from Sakura and cook books. She also saw the 'Icha Icha' collection, courtesy to his godfather, they looked almost untouched tough. However the book she was holding in her hands now, the one that had caught her eyes looked like it was falling apart because it had been read so much, 'Tale of a gutsy Ninja'. Curiously she opened the book._

_Naruto felt like screaming at the stupid tea pot to hurry up and boil the water already. Hinata was waiting in his living room and he did not like her current condition. Something or someone had made her cry and caused her distress, Naruto hoped it was someone because then he could go and beat the living shit out of that person. Something had to be seriously wrong with whoever it was; one had to be a really cold-hearted person to make Hinata sad. And no one was going to do something like that on his watch. _

_After what seemed like an eternity the tea was finally finished and ready to be served. Coming back into the living room, Naruto found Hinata standing in front of his bookshelf reading his favorite book. Naruto smiled as he took in her appearance. Hinata had her back slightly turned to him but not completely. She was wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt; it was deep red and way too big for her. It was so large that it was falling down over one of her shoulder leaving her skin bare. Her soft shiny dark blue hair was draped over the opposite shoulder and her slightly tilted head accented the elegant curve of her neck. _

_He smiled to himself as he got closer to her. In one smooth quick motion his arms encircled her waist, flushing her body to his and his lips nibbled at her eat. Hinata let out a silent 'meep'. _

"_Naruto you know you're not supposed to scare me like that" she scolded softly. _

"_Sorry couldn't resist" Naruto smirked against the warm skin of her neck _

"_You want to read it again? I think by now you read it more often than I did" _

_Hinata smiled "It's my favorite" _

"_I can tell" he kissed her velvet skin tenderly. _

_Hinata leaned back into his embrace "You know before that I didn't know Jiraya was such an amazing writer" _

"_Pfft, this is the only good book he ever wrote, old pervert" Hinata perked an eyebrow _

"_Oh and just how would you know that?" _

"_Well…" Naruto stopped shortly "Kakashi's reading the rest of it, so…" _

_Hinata laughed inaudibly "Well, I never read them so I don't know whether they are badly written or not" _

"_Hinata, don't tell me you are thinking about reading them" Naruto asked mockingly. _

"_Mayyybeeee…. I might be able to get some new ideas from it since you refuse to share your knowledge…" Hinata tried her best to hide the grin on her face. _

"_You think we need that?" Naruto asked scowling "Just you wait. I'll show you…" _

_With that he lifted her up and threw her over his shoulders. _

"_Naruto" Hinata laughed as she was dragged to the bedroom. _

_Naruto blinked heavily, what was that just now? Did he just have had some kind of dream or vision while he was completely awake? _

_Naruto shook his head viciously, what was he thinking? Of Hinata of all people! He must be going crazy, something like that never happened to him ever. And he could not think this about HINATA! _

_Naruto felt himself getting hot all over his body, painfully aware of the blood pulsing through his veins. He was not supposed to have those kinds of thoughts about Hinata, she was sweet and caring and cute and innocent. Naruto felt dirty for wanting to taint her pureness. He snapped out of his self-deprecation when Hinata laughed sweetly at a scene in the book._

"_I'll lend it to you if you want to" his deep voice caused the pale eyes beauty to spin around "It's my favorite. The only one Jiraya wrote I ever read" _

_Hinata smiled "The main characters name is Naruto" she pointed out _

"_Yeah I was named after him. My parents liked the book too" he explained, setting down the tea pot. _

"_Thank you for lending it to me. I will give it back as soon as I'm finished" _

_Naruto grinned at her, like he didn't know that. Hinata would never lose anything._

"_So you want to tell me what going on?" Naruto asked after they had settled down at the table. _

_Helpless to the pleading look he gave her, Hinata told him about Tsunade's offer. On cue the blond knucklehead got exited, he jumped up and down on his chair. _

"_Wow that is so cool Hinata. I'm happy for you" he blabbed on for a little while about how great it was, before he remembered why he had asked her _

"_You're not happy with it?" _

_Hinata shook her head firmly "N-no that's not it. I feel honored, but I …just don't know …if I can…I'm just not sure I'm good enough. I mean negotiation for the Hyuga clan is one thing but…It's just if I will fail in my new position I will fail Konoha. I can deal with d-disappointing my family, I did that all my life…but if I'll fail then it could have disastrous impacts for Konoha. I don't think I can do it…I'm just not g-good enough" _

_Naruto had listened to her attentively, his expression becoming almost angry in the end "Why do you always have to do that to yourself? Why do you constantly have to put yourself down? Hinata you are awesome. I mean you changed you're clan within two years. You were asked for a reason, you know. Tsunade wouldn't ask you if she wasn't sure. You won't let Konoha down. I know it, I believe in you. Konoha needs your diplomatic skills. Hinata when I'm Hokage, I can't do this whole peace thing on my own. I will need your help. I may be slow but even I have realized that peace cannot be brought by war or force. Please Hinata stop doubting yourself and believe in your strength, because I already do" _

_Sternly he looked deeply in her eyes. _

_Catching her breath, the woman exhaled slowly. Hearing him say he believed in her, made her heart want to jump out of her chest. She was still afraid, but it evolved to a good fear. The one you had just before entering an unknown exiting adventure. _

"_Thanks, Naruto" with that one smile he knew she was going to make the right choice. _

_Naruto wasn't sure he was saying the right things all the time and sometimes the words that left his mouth seemed to come out wrong, especially when talking to women. But Hinata seemed to understand what he wanted to tell her, even if he didn't find the right words._

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**Tell me what you think!**


	13. Chapter 10

**As I said I didn't really like the last chapter, so... here is one I'm more happy with.**

**to Guest: When I talked about hair colors I meant in the Narutovers in general, but I get your point. But unless you can explain to me, how a crow was living in Naruto without him noticing, the genetic discussion is pretty much overrated... That was weird anyway, I mean Naruto already has a tenant and when a crow was there too, wouldn't the fox eat it?...Pretty sure I'm going nuts now...  
**

**But I really want to thank you for pointing out my mistakes once again. I'm really grateful. **

**to forbiddenluv4Naruto: Thanks a lot for your offer...but how exactly is this going to work? I have no idea how this betaing stuff is done...**

**I don't own Naruto.**

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With one last encouraging smile Hinata led her friend to the door "Let's talk about this later…You know, a month from now" she tried to joke, but her own dark feelings kept were hanging over her like a dark shadow.

If Naruto hated her, she wouldn't know what to do. He had always been there for her and she needed him in her life so much. Hinata took deep breaths to calm down. No matter how much it hurt her to lose him; she couldn't and wouldn't make the same mistake again. Sakura needed a way out and if she could help her than she would this time. She would not let Naruto's best friends and the person he felt closest to suffer, not if she could prevent it.

„Hinata…Hinata…HINATA"

The dark haired girl in question shot up "Hanabi?"

How did her sister manage to get that close to her without her noticing? And why did she have to scream in her ear?

"Wha..? Hanabi did something happen!" she complained.

"What are you doing inside? Get out, get out, and come on Hinata. Let's go" by now Hanabi had gotten Hinata's coat and stuffed it into her arms.

Still confused Hinata put on her coat and went out of the apartment where her sister waited impatiently at the front door of their little apartment.

Hinata raised an eyebrow "Why exactly are you screaming your head off for?"

Her sister gave her a sly grin "Don't you see?" Hanabi pointed outside.

"Snow…?"

Realization drew in slowly and a smile appeared on Hinata's face. She hadn't even noticed this morning when she had met Sakura but of course her sister had.

"Yeah, now come on!" grabbing Hinata´s hand Hanabi dragged her out the door impatiently.

Laughing Hinata complied. It didn't take long for them to reach the Hyuga compound.

"We're back, I got Hinata that means we can get started" Hanabi yelled

Neji who seemed less enthusiastic about the snow sighed not that anyone could blame him, he only got back from his mission a few hours ago.

"We are Hyugas! I don't think something like that would be appropriated…" his voice was fading when he say the puppy eyed look on his little cousin's face. "Oh, damn it…"

It was amazing how this slender little girl was able to wrap grown men around her finger. Hinata smiled at the scene before her eyes. Neji looked stoically at Hanabi not faltering from his, in Hanabi´s opinion, way to slow way of putting on his jacket and shoes. And her father tried desperately to make his youngest daughter quiet down a bit. They didn't need the whole compound to know how ridiculous they were about to behave. Usually her sister wasn't a loud person but snow got her overly excited.

Hinata would never have thought a scene like this would ever be possible. And she owned it all to number one knucklehead ninja, Naruto Uzumaki. She sighed inwardly; it was him all the time. Whenever something good happened in her life it was in one way or another related to him.

And logically that wasn't good at all for her since she loved him and he didn't love her back, so she should get over him, but he made it really hard on her by being so incredibly. Thanks to Naruto´s speech to Neji all those years ago he was a part of her family now, he didn't hate her anymore. Naruto had made her so much stronger and with Neji help and training she had had been even comfortable with her Byakugan.

Even her father had finally talked to her about the wrongs in their father-daughter relationship and acknowledged her for who she was.

…

_It was five months after the war had ended. Madara and Kabuto were both dead as was Obito and Sasuke had gone into hiding again with the snake Sannin. Hinata had almost lost Neji but thanks to what seemed like a miracle he had made it out alive. _

_By now life had almost went back to normal, well except that the five great Hidden Villages had made a loose contract that stated to negotiate a peace contract. And Iwagakure was in the middle of selecting a new Tsuchikage._

"_Y-you wan…ted to...to t-t-talk to me fa-father?" respectfully Hinata bowed to him and he mentioned for her to sit down. Hinata hated that her stutter was at worst when she talked to him or the elders. She was just so terrified of disappointing him all over again._

"_I asked you here today because now that the dust has settled over Konoha, I too came to terms with my past mistakes" he turned to face her and Hinata could see him struggling to keep his composure. She could also see the fear in his eyes but had no idea what could be the cause of it, however it did give her an unpleasant feeling of dread. _

_Confused she noticed his hand shaking humbly "I have wronged you daughter and I apologize for that. One day I hope you will be able to forgive me" _

_Hinata sucked in air sharply and her eyes widened. _

"_This war made me realize how foolish I have been. There are a lot more types of strength than I took in consideration. And I was scared. Scared that I would lose members of my precious family without making right what I have done wrong. You are a lot like your mother…" he let out a small sad smile"…I guess that is the reason I have been so cold to you all these years. I loved your mother Hinata, but marrying me was what killed her in the end. She was a beautiful and kind hearted woman, not suited for the life in the Hyuga clan. I knew it was going to be hard for her when I married her, but I truly thought that together we would be able to pull trough"_

_Hinata kept quiet she had never heard him talk about Hanabi and her mother. _

_Hiashi paused for a moment and as he went on his eyes hardened "At first I was able to protect her from the elders attack, they detested her because I was supposed to marry a woman from an influential and strong clan in a befriended village but I refused and they never got over that. After I became clan head it was a lot harder for me to defend your mother because I was occupied with work and the constant fight with the elders. It only got worse after you were born; they wanted a male heir to the clan and blamed her for giving birth to a daughter. _

_I was so busy with everything that I never realized the pressure she had to endure. She didn't tell me and I didn't ask, I failed to see her misery. I failed her and when Hanabi turned out to be another girl, they wanted me to divorce her and take another wife. Of course I refused. But Hinata, I am not very good at showing my affection, and I truly do not know how much your mother noticed what was going on. Personally I think the elders made it very clear to her. They wanted her out by any means possible, they isolated her from everyone and like I said the clan business didn't leave me much time, therefore I didn't realize how desperate and lonely she was. And after your uncle died for me, I shut her out of my life almost completely. _

_I suppose one night she couldn't take it anymore, the constant attacks and her non caring husband" Hiashi´s voice trembled and he clenched his fist. _

_That was the most emotion Hinata had ever seen him show. Her heart was beating frantically, she could very well she where this story was going. _

"_She killed herself… just like that she was gone, because I failed her, because I didn't care enough, because I never asked. And I'm sorry you had to grow up without a mother because of that."_

_For a few minutes Hinata just sat there, she had known almost nothing about her mother. She had seen her in some pictures and she had heard whispers about them being similar, so she had already assumed that her mother had not been popular within the clan. Hearing her father say all this was overwhelming for her. _

_But it wasn't right that her father was shouldering all this pain alone and blamed himself. For all her life Hinata had thought that her father was unyielding and invincible but knowing all this… _

_Just as Hinata was about to speak up her father looked to her and his sad eyes connected with hers. _

"_And then you turned out so much alike. The elders were furious I ...I got scared. I wanted to make you strong; I couldn't bear to see you breaking like your mother. I am well aware I took the wrong road, by now. I did to you the most horrible thing, like it was done to your mother. But please understand Hinata I was raised a Hyuga I just didn't know any better. I… just …" searching for words he gripped the arm of the chair harder. _

_Seeing her father like this, so lost, so ….like her, broke something in Hinata. Her father wasn't like that, he was strong, he was…_

_His daughter stood up and walked over to him. Without saying a word she kneeled down next to him and hugged him. Hinata couldn't tell how long they remained like that before she decided to speak up "If that's so, there is nothing to forgive, father. I know you wanted to protect me the best you could. We all have things in the past we regret but you shouldn't blame yourself for mothers dead. She wouldn't want that. You tried to do the right thing and when you mourned Uncle Hizashi´s death... _

_You were not the one who tried to break her. You have done nothing wrong. I wished she had talked to you, I wished she would have said something but she didn't and we cannot change the past, but please do not blame yourself._

_It is this clan, which refuses to change for the coming future. It is killing people from the inside with their long dead rules and traditions. But we live now and we can change them, so no one has to suffer like Mom did…as a memento to her!" _

_Slowly Hinata let go of her father and looked at him. He smiled proudly at her. _

"_That is what I meant Hinata. You are strong in a way I could never be and I´m proud of you daughter. You are right we need to change the way of the Hyuga clan. - That boy got into your head, didn't he? We own him a lot"_

"_There is something else I´ve been meaning to talk to you "Hiashi continued and Hinata sat back down "As I said before I recognized your strength does not lie in the shinobi business. So I come to you with a request. Would you be willing to consider giving up the kunoichi life and become the Hyuga clan's main ambassador? Now that the relationship to the other villages have become more important, we as the last traditional clan in Konoha, and the only one left with a Doujutsu, should also participate in the diplomatic process. The older members of the clan are too influenced by the past. Even I see myself unable to accept shinobi of Kumo in my house. However you are still young and as far as I am informed you even befriended a kunoichi from Kumo. _

_As a representative of the Hyuga clan you would be responsible for all the economic contracts as well as for the peace treaties with other clans. Of course you don't need to decide now. I will give you time to think this over" _

_A million thoughts ran through Hinata´s head. First the information about her mother and now this, all of this made her head spin._

_She had a doubtful expression her father noted "If you want advice I would be delighted to help you. I may not have been a good father in the past but I will try my best to be one in the future" _

_Hinata gave him a faint smile "I ju-just don´t think th-that I…I am suited for this with my st-stuttering…" _

_Her father answered with a stern look "Hinata, I didn't hear you stutter once when you talked to me before. You do not stutter when you know what you're doing and I have faith in you to control it when the time comes. I never hear you stutter around your teammates or Kurenai or Neji and Hanabi, all you need is to feel comfortable. So don't worry about it. Your stuttering will cease"_

_A huge smile spread across Hinata´s face. She had never felt happier; her father had trust in her. Nodding she looked at her father with new determination "I will take your offer"_

…

"Hinata will you stop daydreaming. Concentrate we are about to get into a fight" Hanabi´s voice interrupted Hinata´s musing.

And humming happily she followed them out to the falling snow. It didn't take long for everyone to get drenched to the bones. Since this was a snow fight no one was allowed to use any chakra. Of course that increased to hits multiple times. For anyone who would have come by this would have been a sight to behold. The great, proud, stuck in the ass Hyuga family wrapped up in a snow fight. Hiashi watched from the window in the warmth of his home, a small smile etched into his features.

Carefully Hinata glanced around the tree she was hiding behind, just to look into Neji´s grinning face. She gulped and put her hands up in defeat

"Come on Neji you wouldn't do that to your poor, small little sister" she gave her best puppy eyes and desperate 'please save me I´m so weak' face.

Sighing Neji lowered his hand full of snow, she always managed to do that. Maybe it was the lingering of guilt for how he treated her before but when she played the little sister card he was just hopeless.

Faster than lightning Hinata grabbed a handful of snow and threw it at him.

"Ha, apparently your abstinence from the shinobi life has left his marks. Your purposefulness…" Neji didn't get to end that sentence because a lot of snow was burying him from the branches above him where Hinata had hit them exactly the way she wanted to. Not hesitating she ran from him before he could find his posture.

"That was sneaky, ne Hinata?" a voice suddenly said, Hinata spun around to see her favorite blond leaning casually against a tree.

She smiled at him and felt her heart skip a beat "What are you doing here?"

"What? You're not happy to see me?" He stepped closer to her "There I was coming all the way here to pick you up for our lunch…" he seemed deep in thoughts "… and when walked by I didn't expect to find the highly respected Hyuga clan in a good old fashioned snowball fight. And worst of all, I had to witness a super mean attack at one of my best friends. Betrayed by his, own sweet innocent little cousin. I have to avenge him" he finished dramatically and before Hinata could move a muscle he tackle her to the ground and shoved a handful of snow in her face.

Holding her down with one hand he proceeded to gather snow with the other. The Hyuga heiress could hear her heartbeat echoing painfully loud in her ears and she had a really hard time to keep herself from blushing like the 12 year old she used to be. The situation reminded her roughly that she decided to get over him and to be glad with being friends. She found her tongue again.

"Please Naruto. Mercy, I promise I will never do it again" pulling of her best puppy face, she imitated from Kiba. It worked on Neji, so this should work too. Hinata looked up pleadingly in his deep blue eyes. He stared at the woman lying beneath him, her dark hair, glittered with wetness and some snowflakes, it was creating a beautiful contrast to the white snow, her lips were full and red from the cold, the short breath coming out of her blending in with his own creating their own rythm and her chest was heaving. Naruto hesitated for a second and that was his downfall. A snowball hit him right on the head and he let go of Hinata with a surprised yelp.

"No worries, Hinata, I´ll save you. Together we will get him" Hanabi tossed another accurate placed snowball at him, which he elegantly dodged.

He could however not dodge the one following Hanabi´s. Naruto threw Hinata a dirty look, which she countered by smiling innocently back.

The two girls quickly formed an alliance against him and since they worked together very well he had a hard time to get out of the way fast enough. Because using chakra would be cheating and Naruto did not cheat.

"Neji! Finally! Help me! I tried to get back at Hinata for using that sneak attack on you and they ganged up against poor little me" he exclaimed when he saw a very wet and somewhat pissed Neji coming out of the woods.

Soon a heated fight broke out and all of them found themselves covered in snow from head to toe. Hinata could feel the cold water on her skin, causing her to shiver.

"Ok guys it is getting really cold maybe you two should just admit defeat, so we all can warm up" Naruto suggested noticing Hinata´s full pink lips slowly turning blue.

"Never!" Hanabi screamed and tossed another ball of snow at him.

"I do believe the young man did make a valuable point, how about you call it a tie?" Hiashi turned up out of nowhere.

Everyone looked at him a little startled; none of them had seen him coming. She didn't like to admit it but Hinata was pretty relieved to get out of the cold. In order to arm up Hiashi invited all of them in to drink some hot chocolate.

To keep at least a little warm Hinata hugged herself and rubbed her arms furiously. Her heart warmed itself at the sight she was meet with on the way to the Hyuga home. She saw her father talking with Neji and Naruto was bickering with Hanabi about who kicked who's ass.

She was closer to Naruto than ever, as close as she would ever be to him, Hinata thought with a frown, but she was content with being friends. At least she tried to tell herself that.

A few minutes later all of them were seated in the Hyuga living room around the fireplace. Hinata handed Naruto a cup of hot chocolate which he took gratefully. They sat there for an hour casually making conversation, their lunch at Ichiraku's forgotten. Naruto rarely felt as happy as he did right there and then, it almost felt like family. From the corner of his eyes he looked at Hinata. She looked incredibly cute with her hair all wet and a tad curly. A gigantic blanket was covering her from head to toe. She was smiling and happily chatting with her father. He was glad to see the color of her lips was getting back to her usual rosy shade.

She did have really beautiful lips, he mused, so full and pink and shining, looking so irresistible. Not for the first time he wondered what they would feel like brushed against his own. What they would taste like and how they would feel against his skin.

_No, no, bad thoughts_. Why did he keep having them, they were friends just friends. Nothing more, so she had nice lips, beautiful and kissable and irresistible and perfect…

Hell, who was he kidding **Hinata herself** was beautiful and irresistible. But they were just friends, he shouldn't think about her like that. Still there was this little voice in his head that kept telling him he was indeed in love with Hinata, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Sakura. But Naruto wouldn't have anything like that: It is just a natural hormone thing, a male reflex, he had them about other women too, not as persistent and intense and longing but still, just a reflex, he assured himself. Naruto stole another glance at her. Her cheeks were dusted pink, this time from the cold instead of the constant blush she used to have whenever he was around.

His frown deepened, why didn't she do that anymore? She used to all time even after they became friends. Yet she had blushed because of **KIBA** yesterday! Why did this irk him so much? This was so frustrating.

Naruto remembered how different Hinata used to be, she sure came a long way. He remembered how badly he wanted to make her laugh when he first started to hang out with her. But he wasn't the one who made her laugh first; he needed the help of another male to manage that.

"Hey are you ok?" worried Hinata placed her hand on top of Naruto´s to get him back to the real world.

"Huh? Yeah, I´m fine just thinking" he laughed a little too nonchalantly.

Before she could say anything her sister interrupted them "Well, how did the new experience work for you? Must have been real hard for you don't strain your brain too much"

He decided to ignore her comment and went with his best 'drop death' glare. Hanabi didn't even flinch; she did grow up with Neji though so Naruto chose to take it as win anyways.

_Ding, dong _the ring of the door interrupted their conversations. Hinata rose to get the door

"Oh, Kazekage-sama, please come in"

"Gaara! Hi what brings you here?"

The mighty man with the crimson hair entered the room gracefully "We decided to leave in mere hours so I wanted to inform Hyuga –san of the departure"

"Very well, Kazekage-sama. Would you like to sit down and have hot chocolate with us?" the head of the Hyuga clan bowed respectfully.

"I…"

"Sure he'd love to" Naruto pulled Gaara down next to him before said man had the change to voice his own opinion.

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**Tell me what you think.**


	14. Chapter 11

**Thanks a lot for leaving so many reviews behind, makes me wanna update a lot faster. **

**To Guest: Of course Naruto didn't forget her confession. I stated it in the first chapter of this story. Naruto didn't know what to tell her and Hinata understood that and let him of without having to adress her confession directly. But for both of them it is clear and not unresolved so don't worry. But since I'm really nice I let him think about it in this chapter once again.**

**I don't own Naruto.  
**

* * *

Gaara looked around the room and took the cup with chocolate from Hanabi's warm hands. Sitting here in the middle of the Hyuga family had not been his plan when he decided that he would personally inform the youngest daughter of the mightiest clan in Konoha of their departure. The young man had some trouble placing her. Hanabi Hyuga was confusing, very confusing. The woman had irritated him ever since the first time he met her.

…

_It was over. He was back in Konoha. Naruto looked around and took a few deep breath of the air that smelled like home. Konoha was restored, Obito, Madara and Kabuto all defeated. The alliance with the five nations had been successful, and peace was progressing. There was only one black spot left, one thing that left a hole in his heart… Sasuke_

_He had disappeared just like that and he was nowhere to be found. After he had spent weeks tormenting Tsunade to let him look for his former best friend she had finally allowed him to leave. A whole month he had been looking for him, but no avail. Not even one clue as to where he or Orochimaru were hiding. There should be something, anything…he had looked in every hideout Karin had told him about. Whenever a young child went missing, he had been there, thinking that maybe it was the Snake Sannin's doing, but every single time it had been a wrong lead or a misunderstanding. He was left with nothing. _

_Being back in Konoha, Naruto had to realize that things were not the same as the used to be before the war. Sakura was at the hospital the entire time, determined to take over for Tsunade as head of the medic department. And Sai was kami knows where, rumor had it that Tsunade had talked to him about Root and he and Kakashi were now responsible for resolving that matter. However that was to be kept low profile. _

_Everyone seemed super occupied. But it was alright for Naruto. That way he could fulfill his promise to Hinata, he had said that they would be come close friends and after all that happened between them on the battlefield; he truly felt that maybe he would be the one to really profit from a deeper relationship with her. _

_And he had been hoping that after what they had been through together, it would come easy but she still was too nervous around him, fiddling with her fingers, blushing like crazy and if he wasn't cautions and accidently caught her by surprise she fainted. Naruto sighed, they had hold hands and that time she had been fine. What was the difference now?_

_Around him she seemed always edgy, uncomfortable like she just wanted to get away. That had been one of the reasons he never really tried to befriend her that closely, he had thought she didn't like him, who would have known it was quite the opposite?_

_Naruto felt heat rushing through his body when he thought about that. He still had no idea what he was supposed to do about that or what exactly that meant for him. But he did know that he didn't want Hinata to not be a part of his life. He liked her but more… It was just hard for him to comprehend that she had feelings for him, though it did make him happy. But he couldn't just pretend he loved her back. He just hoped that it would be alright for her to be friends with him._

_Good news was that her nervousness lessened considerably after she got used to his presence and the stuttering and blushing decreased. It didn't disappear though and he didn't like how uneasy she looked. Why couldn't she be with him like she was with Kiba or Shino? Desperately he wanted her to stop stuttering around him, but he barely got her to talk, unless he needed comfort or words of advice, then suddenly she seemed to forget her anxiety. _

_Another thing he noticed about her was that her shyness kept her from expressing her emotions freely. He had never heard a real laugh from her. Sure she did laugh but she always tried to stifle it with her hands or by biting her lips. She smiled and giggled but there was always something hindering her from forgetting her surroundings._

_Brightening up he made up his plan. If he could get her to laugh for real then maybe she was loosening up and then he could start operation: Stop the stutter. _

_But how would he do that? Naruto wondered momentarily if he needed a plan, but quickly decided to wing it when the time came; it always worked out better that way. He rubbed his hand, step one: Find Hinata Hyuga. _

_And where better to start than at the Hyuga complex?_

_Indeed he was lucky as soon as the complex came in sight he saw the girl leaving the compound, holding a picnic-basket in her hands. Naruto hesitated he didn't want her to faint because he took her by surprise again; instead he neared her noisily making sure she saw him coming. The moment he saw a flush on her face he was sure his efforts were rewarded and she would not faint. _

_Waving he jogged to her "Hey Hinata, I was wondering. Are you busy today? Because I thought we could spar together" _

_Averting her eyes to the ground Hinata stuttered out that she was terribly sorry but she promised Kurenai-sensei that she would babysit Masu-kun today. _

_His smile dropped for a second before he revitalized his spirits "Hey Hinata would you mind me tagging along? I don't have anything to do today and taking care of a baby sounds like fun. You know I have to practice, because I want a big _family, ´ttebayo"

_Hinata´s cheek redden some more, but she nodded nonetheless. Together they strolled over to Kurenai´s all while Naruto entertained her with some funny stories. His efforts being in vain, because the most he could get out of her were muffled giggles. _

_Well,__ he comforted himself __at least she giggled at the right parts. _

_Kurenai welcomed them with a warm smile, after she got over her confusion about two people showing up instead of just one, and then of all the people in the world Hinata just had to show up with the number one prankster in Konoha. The dark haired mother left only reluctantly, hoping Hinata wouldn't faint and leave her little baby boy alone with NARUTO. Inwardly the former Sensei of Team eight shuddered. If only she had asked Shino… _

"_Ok" exited Naruto jumped up and down "What do we do now? I know I could teach him how to make a Rasengan!" _

_Hinata´s eyes widen "He i-is only one. R-right now he is learning how…how to walk and b-b-babbling in baby language." _

"_Oh" disappointed he looked down, better not ask her about the Sexy-no-Jutsu. _

_Hinata explained to him, that all they had to do was keep him happy and not let him sleep because if he slept now, Masu would wake up Kurenai in the night. Basically all they had to do was feed him and change his diapers. _

"_A-also we should…talk to him, be-because he is already ta-talking a bit and…and it helps him to under-understand. And if y-you want to, we can help him w-walk for a little" _

_That was the most she had ever talked to him when she wasn't giving him a pep-talk, and the blond couldn't help but feel proud of how she stuttered less compared to the other times. His strategy seemed to work. He nodded happily. Since Masu seemed both fed and dry, Hinata decided they could play a little. _

_First she let him…them play with the Legos. While Masu appeared to be content with just grasping them and clash them against each other or throwing them into the room, Naruto concentrated on building a perfect high tower._

_Satisfied the seventeen year old looked at it, by now it was almost as high as him "Look Hinata" _

_Proudly he showed it to the girl sitting next to the baby on the floor. _

"_V-very good work, Na-Naruto-kun" Hinata praised suppressing her giggle at his happy antic. _

_This was the specific moment Masu choose to crawl over and grab for the tower. Naruto´s face fell along with his monument, while Masu sat under the rain of Legos chortling a laugh and clapping his hands together happily. _

"_Did you see that Hinata? He did that on purpose!" Naruto grabbed her arm and pointed accusingly at the one year old. Biting down another laugh she smiled apologetically at him. _

_Starting from this moment Naruto glared at the baby suspiciously, whenever Hinata had her back turned. No matter what she said the brat did do it on purpose. _

"_W-would you feed him, w-while I…tidy up a little bit?" shyly she held out a glass of disgusting looking mash. _

_Smiling to herself Hinata put the Legos back into the box; she was getting a stomachache from all the bottled-up laughter since she had meet Naruto today. But Naruto's face when he accused Masu to have destroyed his tower on purpose and how he thought she didn't know that he glowered at the toddler every time he thought she didn't look. It didn't take her long to finish putting the toys back and she hoped Naruto had no problems feeding Masu, and instead finally forgave the Lego incident. But then again there shouldn't be - that baby was such a sweet angel. _

"_Hinata!" Naruto´s whining voice reached her ears. _

_That didn't sound too good. _

_When she first entered the kitchen, Hinata was stunned by the picture that meet her eyes and a second later she burst out laughing, all the bottled up smiles and giggles fighting their way to the surface. But this scene was just too funny. Masu grinned at her with an innocent endearing smile completely clean and happy, while Naruto looked like he bathed in baby mash. Still holding the spoon in one hand and the glass in the other he looked at her desperately. _

"_It´s not my fault! Don't laugh, I´m telling you he is a little monster. In front of you he´s always a little angel but when you turn your back…He´s doing it on purpose! He spit it at me and now look…!" _

_Hinata couldn't response because she was busy laughing so hard that tears leaked out of her eyes. How Naruto stood there waving his arms frankly and blaming it on a one year old, it was just too much and now he actually pouted like he was the child. _

"_Oi, Hinata stop that, it is his fault, ´ttebayo" _

_By now she was on her knees because her feet refused to hold her up any longer. The trademark Dattebayo pushing her over the edge once again, it was just so endearing. As for Naruto he slowly started to realize what was happening. Hinata was laughing for real, Naruto rejoiced. He did it!_

_It was kind of interesting how her laughter didn't resemble the spiteful hateful laughter he was met with most of his life. Instead Hinata had a pretty laugh, not hurtful or mean just sweet and melodic. He grinned happily and joined her laughter. _

"_I´m s-so sorry, Naruto-kun, but…but …" Hinata wiped a tear from her eyes. _

"_Yeah I must look silly" he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. _

_After they had fed Masu-kun together, the boy, much to Naruto's dismay, had behaved like a perfect gentleman, Hinata proposed to go out for a walk. _

"_Are you sure we have enough stuff?" critically Naruto let his eyes wander over the package and the buggy. _

_Hinata sighed inwardly, they were taking way to much stuff with them. Usually all she took was the buggy and Masu's pacifier, but Naruto had simply taken all the stuff including the Lego and Hinata had been too nervous to say anything. The dark haired girl simply settled for a nod. They must look very funny, walking around packed with all that stuff. _

"_Gaara!" Naruto waved full of energy as he spotted his friends across the street. The Kazekage being here on his yearly visit, to ensure the good relationships between the villages._

_The sand village leader turned around surprised. _

"_What brings you here, Gaara?" Naruto and Hinata stopped in front of the red head. _

"_I am visiting Konoha, according to the peace treaty. And …what are you doing?" Gaara regarded the kid in Naruto's arms analytically. _

"_We are babysitting for Kure…" _

"_NARUTO!" _

"_Uh, oh…" the blond gulped "Hi Sakura-chan, what's up?" _

_His pink haired teammate marched up to them and, boy, she did not look happy. "Can you explain to me why you're report to Tsunade-sama is still missing? You've been back for a week already" _

"_Is this how they usually talk?" Gaara turned to the quiet woman beside him. _

"_Unfortunately" Hinata said worried, before she snatched Masu out of Naruto's arm and took a few steps away from them. _

"_Hey Hinata, what has the dimwit done this time?" Hanabi was walking over, looking at the members of team seven interested. She had been running away from a guy desperate to ask her out, when she saw Naruto getting screamed at by Sakura and figured she might as well stick around for the inevitable slap._

"_Hanabi, don't call him that!" Hinata shot her sister a disapproving look. _

_That was the moment Sakura's patience gave out and she punched Naruto across the street. _

"_Naruto-kun!" Hinata shoved Masu in Hanabi's arms - carefully of course - and ran over to where Naruto was laying groggily. _

"_Hey sweetie, you sure get handed over a lot today aren't you?" Hanabi cooed at the boy in her arms before she turned to the Kazekage "His name is Masu. He is the son of Hinata's Sensei"_

_Gaara hadn't asked and he couldn't exactly say he was interested, but took the explanation with a nod, not knowing what else to do with this information. _

"_I'm Hyuga Hanabi, by the way. Hinata's my older sister" Hanabi bowed "I am pleased to meet you, Kazekage-sama" _

"_It is a pleasure, Hyuga-san" Gaara replied. _

"_**Hanabi-chan, please go on a date with me!"**__ A boy with brown hair and a large white scarf called out. _

"_Damn, he found me!" Hanabi muttered. _

_She hesitated shortly, than she turned to Gaara. "Can you hold Masu for a little while?" without waiting for his answer she dumped the toddler into his arms. _

_Pure horror was showing in Gaara's eyes while his face seemed unmoved, as he stared down at the kid in his hands. Despite his face not betraying him it, the panic was bubbling up inside of him. _

_What was this girl thinking? _

_Just giving him a fragile little helpless bundle like that. What was he supposed to do now? He was holding the baby with his arms stretched out as far as possible. The boy however seemed rather delighted by this change of events. He laughed soundly and the saliva around his mouth was forming bubbles, Gaara almost dropped him in surprise when Masu reached out to him with his chubby little baby arms. Cold sweat was running down hidden by his sand; he was over challenged by this. _

"_Y-you know he isn't going t-to explode any time soon, s-so you can hold him c-closer" _

_When he lifted his eyes from the baby, he realized that the other Hyuga girl was standing next to the baby. She had an encouraging look on her face, opposed to Naruto who seemed to have trouble hiding his mischievous grin. Gaara shot him his best death glare; unfortunately it was less successful than it used to be. Then again it was hard to look threatening with a baby in your arms The loud pink haired one looked very worried at the kid in his hands, YEP__** that**__ was about what he felt like. _

"_Would you be so kind and take him back!" it was more of a demand than a question. _

"_O-of course" Hinata took the baby gently. _

"_Well, Gaara, early practice only makes a master" Naruto grinned slyly. _

_Another death glare was sent his way. _

_He had been right. After that the ice was broken. Sure Hinata still blushed and stuttered around him, but after this she was much more relaxed and he had discovered that it was a piece of cake to make her laugh. Hinata was laughing about every stupid joke and every funny face he made, and the more he revealed about the Hyuga heiress the more he was captivated to find out everything. He enjoyed spending time with her, in fact whenever he had time to spare she was the first person her sought out for. They had more in common than people assumed. They gardened together in the Hyuga gardens, they cooked, went to the cinema, spared…_

…

That younger Hyuga surely was irritating, Gaara decided. What he could not decide however was, if that was such a bad thing. For now it was just confusing, he had to think about this later, when he had some time at hand. Gaara forced all those thoughts down at the back of his mind and concentrated on the current conversation.

…

"You better write me at least once in a week!" squeezing her sister closely Hinata swallowed her tears. It turned out that letting her little sister leave for Suna was a lot harder than she had expected.

"Hinata please I´m two days away, not leaving forever" awkwardly Hanabi patted her sister´s back. She had already said goodbye to her father and Neji, but Hinata was quite persistent. And Hanabi was not exactly a very physical person, not at all, so hugging like this was weird for her.

With gently force Hanabi removed her elder sister from her body, dumping her to cry at Naruto's shoulder, something he did not mind at all. With a last glance she nodded to them and turned around to leave.

"Shush, Hinata calm down" softly Naruto patted her back.

It was only because Naruto was deadly aware of the presence of Hinata's father and Neji that he didn't give in to his strongest desires. No matter how badly he wanted to pull her closer and no matter how badly he wanted to smell her hair and no matter how much his hand wanted to slip lower, he would not do it. And he wanted all of this really badly, but with her father and Neji's overprotectiveness here, he must have been suicidal. Then again maybe it would be worth it…

"Thanks Naruto, I'm fine now" Hinata wrangled out of his embrace and smiled up to him.

Reluctantly he let her go, but he did not like it at all. He wanted to hold her just for a little longer. Just for some more minutes …or hours…

"Hinata, why are you crying? Did the baka do something?" Sakura was furious as she came over, she was supposed to be on her way to her shift at the hospital, but making one of her friends cry was not acceptable.

Discrete Hiashi and Neji indicated an ordered retreat. Those wimps!

"No, Sakura don't worry. It's just that Hanabi left and…" Hinata started to sob again.

Naruto shot his teammate a nasty look for making Hinata cry again! What was she thinking? But he got to hug Hinata again, so he would forgive her for now.

"Oh, well…how sad" Sakura wasn't Hanabi's biggest fan due to the incident four years ago.

…

"_Hey S-Sakura have you m-met my sister yet? Hanabi this is Sakura, Sakura Hanabi" Hinata introduced her sister. _

_She and Sakura were currently sitting in the kitchen, having cake and coffee and waiting for Ino and Tenten to arrive. Temari was in Suna and Karin already had made plans with Lee, so their weekly hen party was tow people short. _

"_It's nice to meet you, Hanabi!" Sakura smiled. _

_Hanabi returned her smile and sat down. Hearing the ring of the doorbell, Hinata got up. Knowing her sister all too well Hinata gave her the 'please-behave-yourself' look. The second Hinata left the room, Hanabi smiled at Sakura again "Your hair is pink!" _

"_Huh? Yes I know that. It's natural you know!" proudly she flipped her exotic hair back. _

"_I hate pink" the brunette deadpanned._

_Speechless Sakura stared at her, feeling range dwelling up in her body "Oh, really?" _

"_It is just my opinion, tough" Hanabi didn't really mean it in a bad way, but she was brutally honest and sometimes it hurt "Can I ask you something?" _

_A vein popped on the Medics forehead, but she nodded despite of the anger. _

"_Aren't you scared that you will end up all alone? I mean what kind of man would risk his sons to have pink hair? I mean now that I think about it, didn't you like that Sasuke guy back then. I don't think the two of you would have made a nice couple. With his duck butt hair and you bubblegum hair, your kids would have looked like flamingos" _

…

"_Hanabi! What did you do?" Hinata froze at the scene that met her when she came back. _

_Sakura was sitting on the table bawling and crying like there was no tomorrow. Her sister looked up with no intent of guilt in her face. _

"_I leave you alone with her for a minute and you already made her cry!" Hinata desperately asked._

"_Well, in my defense - it was really easy" Hanabi exclaimed. _

"_I don't doubt that" Ino said dryly, she had entered behind Hinata. _

"_Hanabi, would you please apologize!" _

"_But…" _

_*Hanabi!*__ Hinata communicated through her eyes. _

"_Oh fine!" she huffed "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings" _

"_I'm gonna end up all alone!" Sakura cried. _

_Hinata looked intensely at her sister __*Hug her* _

_Hanabi shook her head violently. She was not a big fan of touches and hugs and physical contact. 'NO' she mouthed over 'absolutely not! I refuse! NO' _

_*Hanabi, go hug her now. You made this mess, so it is your responsibility!*_

_Clenching her teeth Hanabi gave Sakura a faint hug and some awkward pats on her back. Then she turned to her sister again, her best 'I-hate-you-for-making-me-do-that' glint in her eyes. It turned into confusion when her look fell upon Ino "So, what do we need a stripper for?"_

…

It wasn't like they hated each other but after this Sakura had a hard time warming up to Hanabi. If only she was more like her older lovely sister…

Truth be told Sakura did like Hanabi but only to a certain extent. It certainly helped that after Hanabi had been done with her, she had taken down Ino. Sakura understood that was just Hanabi's way of behaving, it did get better while she was working on her diplomatic skills with Hinata.

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**Tell me what you think.**


	15. Chapter 12

**To Pain: Thanks a lot for that advice, but honestly I'm completly happy, not to mention surprised at how many favorites and review I already got. But I get what you mean and the further this story progresses the more Naruhina it'll have :) However I'm a coupler, and I want to make all the imaginare characters happy (Yep that's how crazy I am), so I'll fix up anyone :)** **Also I'm sorry if you don't like Karin.**

**To Guest: No problem. I'm happy you ask when you don't get something :) since I'm not confident that I always manage to make things understanable so this helps me a lot. Didn't I write two days away? **

**To TL: There's a difference between a chicken's butt and a duck's butt? I think you looked way to closely :)**

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**-12-**

"Whatever Orochimaru, I'm only working with you because you still have something to give to me" Sasuke pushed himself of the wall and fixated his eyes on the Snake Sannin. His dark eyes were shining with some unknown emotion and his stance was passive-aggressive, like there was something that was holding him back to do what he really wanted to do.

"Ah, well. Sasuke-kun you're hurting my feelings. After all that I did for you" with a fluid motion Orochimaru strode over to the last Uchia. The smile on his face did not reach his eyes.

Sasuke snorted "Tch, if we would have done it my way, this problem would already be solved"

"I don't think you understand Sasuke" with another fake smile Orochimaru pulled out a scroll "First of all we need to get rid of Konoha's allies and then when they are completely alone, we can take out one important piece after another, starting with your precious Naruto-kun"

Disgust crept into Sasuke's hateful face "He's nothing but a nuisance, with all his morals and talk about friendship. But I'll whip that out of his face"

"All in due time Sasuke-kun. First we have to undermine the diplomatic roots of Konoha, and then everything will fall like a game of domino. And I already know exactly how to get rid of everyone standing in our way"

…

"Neji how was your mission?" Hiashi asked his nephew after they successfully managed to sneak away from the danger zone of a raging Sakura.

"It did go well" the Hyuga male frowned slightly.

Very well indeed, if it wasn't for his quarrel with Tenten it would have been perfect. Why did she have to be so stubborn? It was her own fault, what was wrong with her anyway? She was behaving weird around him for weeks now, like she was constantly angry at him and he had no idea why. On this mission the tension between them had somehow exploded. He had no idea what would have happened if the third member hadn't been Chouji.

But seriously, he may need to talk to her about it. Was she on her period or something? What kind of reason would she have to deliberately drive him crazy? It was so frustrating!

…

Tenten was still fuming.

Ignorant, stuck up in the ass, oh so great Hyuga prodigy. Who the hell did he think he was? Team leader from pillow to post but it didn't mean he had to be a damn slave driver. The mission was hard enough and he didn't have to make it harder than necessary.

"Yo! Ten, why do you look like I should rather hid behind some bushes?" two redheads were approaching her from the side. Karui who had asked the weapon mistress raised an eyebrow when she saw the rather pissed-off expression Tenten was sporting.

Karin and Karui exchanged glances at this, they both had a very good idea what it could be about..

"So what did the great Hyuga genius do this time?"

"Don't ask. He´s just so…ughh, stubborn and oh so much better than everyone else, at least that is what he thinks" with a frustrated grunt she threw her arms in the air.

Karui shot a knowing look at Karin, who asked "Come on, what did he really do?"

Tenten blinked uncomprehending.

"There has to be something, something concrete. You wouldn't throw a fit about something as trivial as Neji acting as his usual self. We know you like him, so what did he do to tick you off?" Kauri clarified.

Speechless Tenten stared at the two, before she started to scream her head off about how ridiculous that was, and if they were out of their minds. SHE DID NOT LIKE HYUGA NEJI. Really she didn't, not one bit…she didn't, and she couldn't…

Karui crossed her arms and waited, Karin just stood there with an expression that unmistakably said she didn't believe one word. It was almost spooky, because those two women were not exactly famous for their patience.

In the end Tenten just sighed and gave up "Is it that obvious?"

Karin shook her head and told Tenten the only reason it was obvious was because she wouldn't shut up about Neji, sure mostly she complained but still it was just the look in her eyes whenever she talked about him.

"Why don't you just ask him out?" interested Karui leaned in.

"Ha" Tenten´s words had a bitter tone "Please I could strip down right in front of him and he still wouldn't realize I´m a woman. For him I´m just a buddy, his teammate and friend, I doubt he will ever see me as a woman"

The brown haired weapon mistress put her head in her hands "He likes girls that are more feminine and I´m a not an expert at all that"

Furrowing her brows Karin asked why Tenten would believe such a thing.

"Because I kind of met some of the girls he dated. It's not like they are stupid or slutty or anything like that, it's just that they are very…how do I put it? They are all the same type and all of them are very well mannered and feminine and …not like me at all"

"Well it does sound like Neji to date someone who could be with him. I mean he is the Hyuga head to be and…" Karin poked her friend in the ribs to make her stop, and Karui's eyes went wide "Oh, but I mean they are probably boring and…."

Tenten smiled at the pathetic attempt to cover for her thoughtless remark "You should have seen him on this mission. He didn't even pretend to shake off the horrible attempts of these girls. I bet if we the three of us weren't on a mission; he would date one of them right now. Flirting so shameless with them, at least Chouji has some manners and reminded him of that"

Ignoring the astonishing fact that THE Neji Hyuga knew how to flirt and actually did it, Karin and Karui kept listening to Tenten.

The brown haired women boiled with anger "I have to give up on him; I don't understand what I see in him anyway. He's stubborn to no end, he can never admit that he is wrong, he's always just there for me and he has this super annoying girly hair that is so shiny that it makes me want to…" Tenten drew in a deep breath. "Damn it, sorry for freaking out like that"

Empathically Karin hugged her close and chirped "Don't worry we will help you get your man"

Tenten´s head shot up "NO! Absolutely not! You will not do anything, don't you dare. If I find out you do anything crazy I swear I will get my extra sharp kunais and shove them…"

Karui took a step bank and tried to appease her "Fine, we won´t do anything"

Tenten smiled relieved "I'll hold you to it. So what are you up to now?"

"Oh we just wanted to go visit …"

"Shoot I totally forgot I promised Lee to spar with him. Why didn't you remind me, Karin? You guys share everything. Damn!" Tenten cursed and took off to the training grounds. Stupid Neji making her think about him and forgetting she was supposed to train with one of her best friends.

Konoha's number one weapon mistress was barely out of earshot when Karin turned to the other redhead "We´re still going to do it, aren't we?"

The woman next to her grinned and a wicked smile appeared on her beautiful face "You betcha!"

Exited Karin jumped up and down and pumped her fist in the air "Yosh, we are gonna help to let youthful love blossom"

"Every time I start wondering why the hell you are dating Lee, you do something like that" Karui said dryly.

…

"Hi Ino, how is it going? Helping out again I see" smiling brightly Chouji entered the flower shop and was greeted by a similar bright smile on Ino´s face.

"Chouji!" she fell round his neck.

Chuckling deeply he returned her hug.

"What brings you here?"

Looking around interested Chouji answered "I wanted to go by Ami´s place and I thought why not buy some flowers?"

"Oh" Ino´s face fell and there she had thought he came by to see her.

How stupid of her, Chouji was just here because of …_her_. Ino wasn't happy with her best friend dating that…witch. She was suspicious of her ever since they started dating three months ago and couldn't shake off this uneasy feeling. Whenever she was around Chouji´s girlfriend she got a nasty knot in her stomach.

"I was thinking roses?" her former teammate's voice snapped her out of her daze.

"Are you sure? I would recommend marguerites or narcissuses"

"Mmhh…Fine I trust your judgment." He nodded approvingly.

Ino felt almost remorseful for a moment but shook it off quickly. Ami didn't know a thing about flowers, so she had no reason to worry. The blonde watched as her friend left humming, she couldn't smother the sting she felt.

…

Gaara glanced at the young woman travelling next to him. He had to confess that Hanabi Hyuga was a rather attractive woman, her dark brown hair was silky and shone in the sunlight and like every other Hyuga she possessed the trademark Byakugan eyes. Up until now, they had seemed plain and weird, but for some reasons her eyes reminded him strongly of a full moon. They seemed to sparkle in subtle silver. Maybe there were not all the same, her sister's eyes were different from hers and so were her cousins.

Her skin was very pale and he wondered how she would take the burning sun in Suna. It would cause a lot of problems if she got sunburned and then started to worry about her looks and decided to go back to Konoha. His own skin was only a tad darker but he was protected by his sand armor that never left his skin, so the sun had never been a problem for him.

Thinking about his sand, he frowned. Until two days ago his sand armor was a constant in his life, until he meet Hanabi Hyuga – well until he met her the second time.

His body reacted strange to her – or to be more precise - his sand reacted strange to her. On the party last night, she was standing close to him, her hand next to his, close but not close enough to touch. But if they had touched, she would have touched his bare skin. The moment her hand was close, his sand had retreated. He hadn't willed it away, he hadn't done anything to make it happen, so what had caused this. Even when he had tried to willed the sand back to cover his skin, it wouldn't obey. Not once did that happen before his sand not followed his command, it moved in order to protect him without waiting for an action from him, but it never did anything to make him more vulnerable.

Even with his siblings he had to order his sand to leave him, but now it appeared his sand had a mind on his own. Then again it could have been a coincidence. That was the only logical explanation. Yet he couldn't stop himself to shot another glance at Hanabi.

She wondered why the Kazekage was so distracted. Hanabi could tell something was bothering him, his face was as motionless as ever but the expression in his eyes had changed. He seemed restless and unsettled.

Hinata had taught her a lot of things about being a diplomat. Rule number one, know your counterpart.

The Kazekage wasn't making it easy for her; she had to pay attention to every tiny detail. But Hanabi was pretty proud of herself because within two days she was able to read some of his feelings, but she was far from understanding the mightiest man in the Village hidden in the sand. It was surprising for her how much she wanted to understand him or how intrigued she was with him. Well she had a lot of time at hand now; some of it would be spend with the handsome redhead next to her.

…

Hinata couldn't stop thinking about the conversation she had with Naruto yesterday evening. He had looked so sad when he talked about the loneliness and his dark apartment. Her heart tightened at the thought of him ever having to come back to such a depressing place ever again. Mission were hard enough and sometimes they stole away your spirit and your heart. She didn't want him to be alone; at least she wanted him to have someplace else to go, so that he didn't have to alone if he didn't want to.

Hinata wanted to do something, anything really. She had done so many wrong things in the past, especially when it came to Naruto. She didn't want to stand by and watch anymore, she couldn't take it. The guilt was already killing her as it was.

…

"Naruto stop being a baby about it. I know it is not the world most challenging mission but they requested you personally, because they wanted to meet Konoha´s hero and future Hokage. You should be honored to escort the nephew of the Firelord to the capital. You will be back in Konoha in no time so stop complaining" Tsunade´s vein popped dangerously, she was tired of discussing this mission with him.

When he was done with that mission she was going to tell him that his official declaration as Hokage was going to be soon and there wouldn't be many more missions for him. But because he was behaving like a brat she had decided not to tell him now.

This mission was most likely one of the last ones he was able to do, because he had to learn how to do paperwork and Tsunade intended to ask Hinata for her help to make him more suitable for meetings and negotiations, meaning more diplomatic. He still lacked tact but his heart and his honesty made up for it enough, still better safe than sorry. Some of the aristocrats were not very easy to deal with.

The blond pouted "Fine but after that I want a really interesting mission – of course you can always just make me Hokage to make up for it"

An hour later he was ready to take off, and he didn't even have time to tell Hinata. _Why does that matter to me?_ Was Sakura right? Was he in love with Hinata? But she was his best friend and he wanted to let her know, besides he was really fast and ten minutes shouldn't matter, right?

"…ruto…Naruto!"

A huge smile spread over his face when he saw the petite figure of the girl he was just thinking of running toward him. Today the sun made her hair seem almost purple as it was flowing behind her and her eyes shone in light lavender; her beautiful, full lips were adored with a sweet smile. Her outfit was a simple as usual; long black pants were the only thing visible under her cream colored winter jacket that seemed just a tad too big for her. It made her seem more fragile than she was and she looked cute. When she reached him her cheeks were a little red and her nose was lightly pink from the cold wind "You're going out for a mission?"

He nodded happily, even if the mission sucked. How could he be in a bad mood with Hinata standing right in front of him?

"This mission is going to be such a pain in the ass"

The woman couldn't help but feel worried about her Naruto "Is it dangerous?"

He explained to her that the mission was the opposite of dangerous but plain boring and if anything he was going to die from boredom. Very much enjoying the fact that he could complain to her all he wanted without having to worry about annoying her or to get a fist in his face.

"Still…"unsure she looked at him "Please come back in one piece"

Surprised he looked at her "Don't worry I´m going to be fine. I pro…"

"Don't!" Hinata stopped him "Don't promise something you cannot know for sure or change. Just promise me you will **try** anything to come back safe"

Naruto didn't exactly understand why she would ask something like this now when he went on such a dull mission but the look in her eyes told him she was serious.

"I promise I will do anything to come back, from this and all future missions. But you don't have to worry, I won't die until I become Hokage" he gave her his trademark grin and she couldn't help but mock him

"Dattebayo?"

Indignant he scoffed "Hey I haven't used that in years!"

Hinata laughed at his pouting face "Oh, I have something for you! That's what I came for" Hinata rummaged in her pocket before giving him a key on a chain.

"You´re giving me a key? What is it for?" clueless he examined the gift.

"Remember when we talked yesterday evening? It´s the key to my apartment, so when you don't wanna go home to an empty place you are always welcomed to sleep at my place. Hanabi´s room is vacant now, so none of us has to be lonely. You can come over anytime, even when I´m not there or when you just need something to eat. Stop by whenever you want" Hinata smiled softly.

The man before her stared speechless back at forth between her and the key. When he didn't say anything for a long time, Hinata started to get insecure. Maybe this was a terrible idea and he felt obligated to come by even if he didn't want to. Or he didn't know how to tell her that he didn't want it.

So she hurried to explain "Of…Of course you don't have to, I just thought that if you would feel lonely coming back from a mission and you want to come to an apartment someone…Ok, maybe this was not a good idea. If you want to, you can give it back, I won´t be mad"

"Are you crazy? This is the best gift ever. Thank you so much Hinata" Naruto couldn't find the words to tell her how much this meant for him.

It was moments like this when he just didn't know what to say. When someone did something for him…he was still not used to that. So instead of telling her he decided to show her instead and before she could react he had pulled her into a bone crushing hug. As always she had to fight down her blush from the unexpected physical contact, even after all these years she still needed time to prepare for this "I´m glad you like it"

Reluctantly Naruto let go of her "Thanks again Hinata. I can never make it up to you"

She smiled "You already have. Come back safe Naruto"

* * *

**Any questions, remarks, suggestions, critisim is welcomed.**

**I'm grateful to anyone who points out my mistakes.**

**Tell me what you think and thanks for reading.**


	16. Chapter 13

**I do not own Naruto.  
**

**Thank you everyone for reviewing it means a lot to me.**

**For all those who asked. If you want to know who Gaara will end up with and why, please read Preface VII.**

**Preface VI is Ino pairing. **

**For all those who don't like spoilers, read right ahead and leave a review.**

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**-13-**

_Ding dong_, patiently Neji listened to the light steps behind the door. He knew how close Hinata and Hanabi had become and with her little sister in Suna he figured as her considerate and nice cousin he would go console her. It wasn't like he'd miss the brat or anything; he was just concerned for Hinata.

He however was not prepared for what he saw when his cousin opened the door.

"What happened to you?" bewildered he took in her appearance.

Her hair was tucked under a white cap with strands of her dark hair that dared to peek out boldly. A blue overall was worn over a white shirt decorated with what looked like splashes of paint, and if it had made any sense he could have sworn there were white and orange blobs. Raising an eyebrow he followed her in.

"Hi Neji, please come in. What brings you here?" Hinata asked while she ripped the cap of her hair and started to make some tea.

Neji cleared his throat "I was wondering, if you were alright. You seemed down, when Hanabi left"

A smile found his way to her lips, one he was unable to see since she had her bag turned to him while picking out which tea to use. Neji was here because he had been worried. Not that he'd ever admit that, but Hinata was happy that he was being so kind.

"Well, it's going to be lonely. But I'm sure she'll be doing fine in Suna and besides she is only a two days journey away. I was being a little oversensitive. I guess I was just used to her being around. It will be weird coming home at not being welcomed with some homemade cake or cookies or anything like that"

He nodded as he took the tea cup from her hand "She really does have an obsession with sweets. It's unhealthy, I just hope she won't overdo it with the sugar in Suna, not that no one is watching her"

Again Hinata smiled at his way to voice his concern "Oh Neji, I didn't even ask how your mission went!"

He sighed at her obvious change of topic but let it slide. Instead he reported briefly about the mission to her but left out the part where he had a …'difference of opinions' with Tenten.

Nevertheless he couldn't fool Hinata, when she asked him what was annoying him, because, really, the way his eye twitched there just had to be something wrong. He told her about how irrational Tenten was being and that she was constantly up his ass, complaining about him, and Neji had no idea what her damn problem was.

Hinata kept still but she had a very strong idea what Tenten´s problem was. Having had an own very painful obvious crush for years made her very observant when it came to that topic.

Her cousin shrugged it off when he came to the conclusion that she was probably just on her period "Well I don't care, have better things to worry about"

Resting her chin in her hands she looked at him over the table "Can I ask you something? Why are you dating all those women?"

Ok, that was something Neji didn't expect. Was today change-the-topic-day or what? Besides that was nothing he'd want to talk about with someone who was like his sister, but she had asked and he would answer.

"Well, in a few months I'm going to become the new Hyuga Clan head. As it is I rarely am allowed to go on mission because of this and once I am head I'll be under close watch from the elders. You know how they are. Despite the fact, that they elected me, not all of them are happy about the development between the branches. I cannot allow myself any mistakes"

"Ah, yes it'll be hard for you" Hinata agreed full heartily, yet secretly glad that it wasn't her after all. She remembered the pressure all too well "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"The women I take out, are sophisticated and intelligent, they are classy and well-mannered, suited for a clan head. It's not like I go out with them to dump them three dates later, but after some time each and every one of them starts to bore me"

Confused Hinata searched her cousin's face for any indications were this was going. She did have idea, but that one she didn't like, so she ignored it for the moment.

"I'm 25, and about to lead the biggest and most influential clan in Konoha. I need someone by my side, who is fitting. I decided to try find that person on my own first, because after I won't be able to"

Her eyes widen as her darkest suspicion was confirmed. When she asked him if he was truly willing to submit to an arranged marriage by the elders he just shrugged.

"If I am not able to find someone suitable maybe they can"

"You can´t be serious! Neji there are a lot of nice woman who are compatible.-What…what about Tenten? You know her, you are friends, you like her, why don't you ask her out?"

Neji almost laughed but his Hyuga-stuck-up-in-the-ass-ness wouldn't allow it. _Tenten?_ That was the most absurd thing he ever heard. Not once had that possibility crossed his mind. Tenten was a friend, a comrade and trainings partner, noting more.

Hinata sighed, she could understand what he meant when he said he needed someone by his side and that he wanted to look for her himself. But he was hurting Tenten with his behavior without even realizing it. Evidently his all-seeing-eyes were blinder than it seemed.

…

For the tenth time that day the Kazekage wondered how he managed to get himself into this mess. Usually he was such a composed person. He always thought things through; he never went blindly into a situation. He was calm and collected and rational and yet here he was, seated in front of a cabin, which held Hanabi Hyuga in it, who in turn held yet another item of clothing in her hands.

So why was he sitting here again? How did that happen?

Oh right, he remembered.

…

_When they had arrived in Suna, the sun was starting to set. They had made it in an acceptable time, not his fastest travel but far from the low, when it had taken them almost three days from Konoha to Suna._

"_This would be the embassy for the Konoha diplomats. Your room is the first one to the left, when you go up the stairs" The Kazekage explained to his travel companion and future diplomat, as she was eyeing the simple yet beautiful building that would be her home from today on onwards. _

_Politely Gaara asked the young woman if maybe she wanted to freshen up a little bit, before the continued. Relieved Hanabi nodded at this. Her clothes were sticking to her body and she had sand in her hair and in places it definitely shouldn't be and she didn't want to think about right now._

"_Would you like to wait here? I would like to visit Suna and get to know the city. And I cannot think about a better guide than the Kazekage himself. Assumed you don't have any other obligations, Kazekage-sama?" _

_The Kazekage nodded "Since I wasn't expected until tomorrow I am free today, Hyuga-san. I shall make preparations while you get ready and inform my secretary that I will not be coming to the office today"_

_Half an hour later they were strolling down the roads of Sunagakure, the village hidden in the sand._

"_I am incredibly and deeply impressed, Kazekage-sama. Suna is beautiful; I have never seen any more thoroughly thought through architecture that blended in so perfectly with his surroundings. These houses are beautifully designed and built. How does Suna organize the supply of water and electricity?" Hanabi asked interested._

_Briefly she wondered if the Kazekage would be annoyed at her constant questions, but she had never been in Suna and she her naturally curios character made it hard for her to be patient. So far she had not seen anything in his eyes, that would indicate that he found her questioning irritating, so Hanabi felt confident in asking some more._

"_Ah well" the red head crossed his arms, pleased she would think so far and by how interested she was in his beloved village "Now that is a master stroke of engineering and craft. We use water power from the ocean, that is also were we obtain our water from" _

_Hanabi looked at him with surprise written all over her face "But the ocean is hundreds of miles away" _

_He started to explain how the engineers of Sunagakure constructed pathways and designed ways to store water and reprocess it. In addition every household was connected to it and the houses were developed fitting together with the environment. Hanabi began to understand why Hinata was so excited about the skill-exchange program._

_For now it was only a pilot project, but it had great potential. This held some interesting perspectives for Konoha. _

"_Hyuga-san, would you like to rest and have something to eat?" _

_Hanabi was glad he asked because by now she was really hungry and started to get worried her stomach would make a humiliating noise. She really did not want that!_

_Not much later they were seated in a nice restaurant with reasonable prices. Hanabi was pleasantly surprised how good the food was; the amount of unknown ingredients had made her slightly worried. _

_Another thing she already loved about the town was the large market with unbelievable variations of fruits, vegetables and other great things. The Kazekage and she had passed by it earlier, and she could not wait to actually take her time to check it out. It was twice as big as the Konoha market and it was in the middle of the night! Hanabi couldn't wait to try and cook and experiment. _

"_Now Hyuga-san, I would assume you want to adjust your wardrobe to the climate in Suna. I will send for an appropriate companion for you or would you prefer to rest?" his sea green eyes connected with her silver greys. _

_Hanabi raised a brow in confusion "An appropriate companion?" _

"_Yes, a woman who will be able to tell you how to dress in this heat. Or would you prefer to ask someone from your own staff?" _

_The woman before him laughed "And you can´t help me? We are already here anyway. It'll be complicated to send for someone and have her come here, besides I don't want to trouble someone. You did say you had no other obligations, right Kazekage-sama"_

_Gaara had trouble keeping his straight face. Did the Konoha diplomat just ask him to go shopping with her? No, that didn't sound right. "I´m afraid I don't understand"_

"_Well I do not see, since you don't have any duties today, why you can´t keep me company. You lived in Suna all your life therefore you know how to keep cool in the heat. Besides we will work close together in the future so I would propose we spend this day in each other´s company since from tomorrow on we will both be wrapped up in work" _

_Gaara protested something about that he was a man and she was a woman and that it would be improper…But according to Hanabi those "lame excuses" were "ridiculous". _

And now he sat here, in front of a cabin waiting for Hanabi to remerge from it. How come he had been unable to get out of this? It made have something to do with the fact that usually no one would ask unreasonable things from him…or it could be because no one ever insisted on something he had already refused to. Usually people weren't that persistent when he had said no…Still, he could have just refused…at least he'd like to think that.

Up until now it hadn't been as bad as he had had assumed. He had thought going shopping with a woman would be more …complicated. Gaara didn't like shopping to start with, he always just picked whatever was his size and went with the first thing that seemed appropriate. He had already realized that it was different from how Hanabi Hyuga did it, but she didn't appear to be picky.

One thing that he noticed about the Hyuga woman was that she detested tight clothes, something that seemed to run in her clan. Gaara was glad about it, since loose clothes allowed the heat to circulate. If she had wanted something tight fitting, he would have had no idea what to do to get her to give up on it.

Still it didn't make it easier to find clothes for her petite form. Somehow the clothes always made her look like she weight a hundred kilo but he would rather bite his tongue off than to tell her that of course. He might not know much about women but that was something even he knew. So whenever she came out he would simply nod approvingly.

Inside the cabin Hanabi sighed for what the felt like millionth time, again it looked horrible. She looked like a fat cow. Usually she didn't care much about looks but she was an Ambassador, so she had to look at least presentable. And the Kazekage was not being a big help!

Why couldn't he just tell her she looked fat? It was important for her, to go shopping with someone who wasn't afraid to tell her the truth. It was ridiculous, what did he think she would do when…

A spark of mischief crept in her eyes and her lips went up to form a dangerous smirk.

Stepping out of the cabin in this hideous outfit, she already saw this frustrating "you-look-fat-but-I-will-never-tell-you-that- instead-I-will-let-you-go-out-with-it-and-let-the- whole-world-see-how-horrible-you-look"- approving nod.

"So what do you think Kazekage-sama?"

Instantly the male was cautious, she hadn't asked him before "It is the appropriate clothing for the heat" Technically that wasn't a lie.

Closing her eyes, Hanabi pressed her index finger to the bridge of the nose "Look, I know very well how I look. So will you please be honest? We will need to negotiate and work together, so will you please tell me I look fat!"

_**TRAP!**_All alarms in Gaara´s systems went off. Keeping his unmoved face a suspicious look entered his eyes. It had to be a trap. Kankuro had told him never! "NEVER, Gaara you better listen" to tell a woman she wasn't perfect. So this smelled fishy.

But then again Hanabi Hyuga was unlike any other woman he knew. The only skin she voluntarily showed was her face and the space between her ankles and the beginning of her pants that also went over the knees. She ate her food and even ordered dessert.

He cleared his throat and after a moment of hesitation to study her face, he replied "It does make you seem a little overweight"

Tears welled up in her moon like eyes "How can you say that? I knew it, you think I´m fat! You are so mean and then you say it right to my face"

Ok, now he panicked and his deep green eyes widen with shock. That wasn't good at all, the Kazekage making a foreign diplomat cry in public!

"But you said…" sometimes he wished he was his old self again, he didn't have to deal with stuff like that, when Shukaku was still sealed inside him and everyone thought he was a maniac killer.

Suddenly Hanabi stopped and looked up mischievously "Just kidding. That was exactly what I wanted to hear…Oh don't look at me like that, I was just messing with you" smiling brightly she looked at him.

Astonished the Kazekage stared at her. She had pranked him!

Him!

The Kazekage of Sunagakure!

No one ever pranked him. His mind couldn't quiet comprehend it.

"Kazekage-sama? You are not mad are you? I just wanted to lighten the mood" Hanabi was starting to get worried. Maybe she should have just listened to Hinata and keep her inner prankster hidden. But the atmosphere had been so tense and the Kazekage had seemed so stern.

Then she saw it, an almost unnoticeable curl of his lips upward, which caused Hanabi to exhale in relief. "Well, shall we try the next hideous outfit then?"

…

Never in her life had Ino been this mad. She was furious, enraged, there wasn't a word for the emotion she felt.

This little snake, this sorry excuse for a woman, this…ughh She was so mad she wasn't even able to think of a good insult. Right now she just wanted to rip Ami´s head off.

How could that skank do something like that? That unworthy bitch, she actually cheated on Chouji.

Ino just couldn't understand it, why would anyone cheat on **Chouji.** He was so nice and sweet and charming and caring and considerate and … ughh she was going to kill her.

"She isn't worth it Cho. Just forget about her" comforting she hugged him and tried her best not to let her murderous intent leak out.

The big boned man sighed "I should have known. Why would someone like Ami that someone like me?"

Horrified the blond beauty shot up "Don't you dare think that. She didn't deserve you in the first place. Ami was always a devious snake. You can do a lot better than her Cho"

_No I can´t. _Chouji looked at his teammate with a distant look on his face; she didn't see it because currently Ino was occupied with considering ways to kill Ami and make it look like an accident.

"Ino please it's fine. Just forget about it. I should have known, besides we just started dating. I will be fine" soothingly he smiled at her, as if she was the one who needed comfort. And truthfully maybe that was true, Ino seemed more upset about this than he was. Sure he was hurt and felt horrible, he had genuinely liked Ami, but his feelings hadn't been love, yet.

Ino wasn't buying it she knew he was hurting and it made her so furious she wanted to scream.

Chouji started to get up "Ino thanks for listening. I mean I took up almost an hour of your time. Thanks again but I promised Kurenai I would watch Masu today"

"I´ll help you!" Ino volunteered.

But Chouji shook his head and told her he would prefer to be alone.

"Cho, you can come by anytime, you know that? You don't have to thank me I´m your friend. And trust me you can do a lot better than her. Every girl can be lucky to have you"

_Yeah maybe, but I still can´t have you. _Chouji smiled faintly and turned around to leave.

Watching his retreating back, Ino felt the range coming back, turning around swiftly she grabbed her keys and went out the door.

It didn't take her long to reach Ami´s apartment, forcing her range down she knocked as normal as she could. It took out a lot of Ino not to jump Ami in the face when the…woman opened the door.

"What do you want here?" annoyed the purple head leaned in the doorframe.

Clenching her fists Ino hissed at her "Like you don't know that, you bitch. You cheated on my best friend and he does not deserve that, I swear to god if you don't leave him alone from now on…"

Scoffing Ami rose a brow "Oh I´m so scared. What are you gonna do to me? Do you see how I´m shaking"

Barely controlling her trembling Ino took a shaking breath "Just leave him alone"

Ami grinned viciously "Jealous much? Don't tell me you like him Ino. Oh, that explains why you´re always around him"

Ami laughed, it was a high pitched tone that made Ino cringe "Don't worry you can have him all for yourself. I don't need to run after that fat…"

The next thing Ami saw was the ceiling, because she was lying on the floor, holding her bloody nose. Ino had her fist still up.

"Don' . . .Way." she pressed out before turning on her heels, she had to get out or she would do something that she would regret…no that wasn't true. She had to get out or she would do something that would get her in jail.

Standing in the streets in front of the…ugh woman´s house, Ino slowly calmed down.

"Whoa, Ino what crawled up your ass?" Ino glanced up to see a curvy blond that had her hairs in four tails.

"Oh, hi Temari"

Temari raised a brow seeing Ino so miserable didn't happen very often.

…

"No, she didn't!" the two blonds sat together in a small café.

Over a cup of coffee Ino had told Temari what had happened. To no one´s surprise Temari was disturbed as well "I will kill her. I will rip her every hair out and then I will kill her"

Ino nodded "I know how you feel. I just don't understand why she would do something like that. Chouji is like the perfect boyfriend. He always thinks about her and buys flowers. He's sweet and he cares so much."

Relaxing gradually after Ino's outburst Temari leaned back "So, will you tell Chouji how you feel?"

"What?" wide eyed Ino looked at the girlfriend of her teammate "I don't know what you´re talking about!"

"How long are you keep lying to yourself, Ino?"

Giving up Ino replied sadly how she couldn't tell him because he didn't feel the same way and besides now she couldn't confess because Chouji had to get over Ami first.

"Oh come on Ino, that´s not gonna take him long. That was just a meaningless fling and we all know it. Go get him girl"

…

Naruto couldn't sleep again, and again it was the same damn thing that kept him awake. Was he in love with Hinata? She was sweet and nice and often he found himself wondering when she changed from the plain, shy girl into that perfect, amazing, gorgeous woman.

So he was attracted to her, that didn't mean he was in love. He was attracted to a lot of women; he couldn't think of one right now but…

Oh shit, that wasn't good, he started to sweat. Also he loved being around her, if not he wouldn't have tried to spend as much time as possible with her for…years?

Oh, not good. But it was her fault because she was just so damn sweet and caring and nice and…perfect. She taught him how to cook for crying out loud. She was so patient with him and she listened to all of his stories. She laughed at his jokes and when he was being stupid she didn't hit him. Not once, well once but that didn't count, because it didn't hurt and she had caressed his cheek afterwards! She was never mean or laughed at his stupidity.

Naruto turned violently, staring at the opposite wall.

When he'd make a mistake, she would smile and simply tell him what he did wrong and then he would retry and get it right. Whatever he did, Naruto didn't need to worry about his bones or feel inferior, and instead he felt like he was the best man possible whenever being around Hinata. He could relax and just be himself. It was nothing wrong with wanting to spend time with her, right?

…

Sakura stared outside her window, she was still thinking about the position in Suna, Hinata had offered to her. Did she want to leave Konoha? It was her hometown the place where all her friends lived, her family, her job…

It was the place where she first met Sasuke, where she fell in love with him, where he left her behind. It was the place where he still haunted her. Sometimes she felt constrained and worst of all she felt lonely, no matter how many people surrounded her.

Sakura would lie if she said she never thought about leaving, just running away and leave all her troubles behind. Only she wouldn't.

She loved the villages and she didn't want to let them down and leave them and her duties behind, she could never bring herself to abandon them. Moreover Hinata was right she couldn't run away from her problems, but would she be able to solve them in Konoha? Every one of her friends knew about her past and they could hide it all they wanted, Sakura could see it deep in their eyes… pity.

Everyone knew about her feelings for Sasuke and she wasn't sure if she could take on her problems when she stayed in this village. Everything seemed so close, suffocating her. Pained the pink haired medic Nin closed her eyes and tried to sleep, so that she didn't have to think about him anymore.

…

Two figures were creeping down the street, hiding in the shadows, cautious aware of their surroundings. They kept their guard up until they reached their destination. A secret code was knocked on the wooden door.

"Who is it?" the voice from inside startled the two figures.

"It´s us" the female whispered.

"Us? Who is us?" Karui opened the door.

The female swept in fast, followed by the male.

"Why did you ask who was outside we used the secret knock code" said Karin accusingly.

"What secret knock code are you talking about? This isn't some gangster movie and we don't want to rob a bank" with a sigh the Kumo kunoichi closed the door.

"Yosh, but we want to hook up Tenten and Neji. My teammates are very sneaky and easily get suspicious and Neji is a hard opponent to fool, we have to be careful" the second figure got rid of the bleach brown trench coat and revealed to be no one else but Rock Lee.

"You told Lee!?" bewildered she looked at Karin.

The other red head pouted "Well, you told Kiba" defending herself she pointed to the door. Leaning casually against the doorframe was indeed Kiba Inuzuka.

"That's different!" Because Kiba wasn't a crazy spandex wearing youth-enthusiast.

"Let us not argue dearest friends. We have a mission to fulfill, a mission of love!" Lee chirped in and prevented a fight between the two temperamental women.

With stars in her eyes Karin turned to him "How right you are Lee-kun. We have more important things to do than to fight. After all the happiness of two of our friends is at stake"

Kiba grunted something about how he doubted Neji would agree but covered it with a cough. In turn three pairs of eyes glared at him, and yes that included his loving girlfriend.

"Ok, so what is your plan?" he asked.

Pretty fast he realized that there was no plan. And Kiba knew this was going to be a tough piece of work, which was the reason why he was here in the first place, he loved a challenge…and his girlfriend had asked. And damn it, he just wanted to impress her, even if he didn't need to because she already belonged to him.

So in this rare moment of motivation the brain cells in Kiba were working overtime. Tenten wasn't the problem. She had the hot´s for the Hyuga genius for months. No, the problem was Neji. Rubbing his chin Kiba thought about what he knew about Neji, since Hinata was one of his best friends he did know the long haired male pretty well. Right now however Neji wasn't looking for a committed relationship as far as Kiba could tell, then again neither had he been, sometimes things just happen.

Kiba was sure Neji liked Tenten well enough but he didn't see her as a girl, not that Kiba could blame him, Tenten did have a tendency to be a tomboy. So the concrete question was how to get Neji to be interested in the woman. After he voiced that thought the discussion got more targeted and effective.

"I´m going to be honest, we all know what Tenten needs. A makeover! She´s a cute girl but she doesn't show it"

"That does feel a little bit like were in a teenage movie. And besides we don't want Neji to like her because of her looks!" Karin argued.

"But he already likes her, he needs to feel attracted to her and then he might see that Tenten is the only girl that can keep up with him" the male opposed with a wolfish grin, his argument was supported by a bark of his faithful dog Akamaru.

Suddenly Karui´s eyes started to sparkle "I think Kiba has a point, we should give her makeover, but we are gonna need a reason to do that. And I know exactly what that will be…"

Karin understood what she meant and sang "A date!"

Both women smirked at each other.

"Competition is good for business!" Kiba grinned.

"Ah I see. How youthful. And Kiba-kun and I will make sure Neji-kun sees them!" Lee brought the final clue to their plan and high-fived his girl before breaking into a happy dance.

Dryly Kiba turned to Karui "You do realize if Neji or Tenten ever find out about this we are dead meat."

His girlfriend nodded "Kumo will grant us refuge"

* * *

**Tell me what you think. And thanks for reading **


	17. Chapter 14

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed.**

**I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

The way people in Suna lived was very different from Konoha. No amount of reading and preparing herself for it could spare her body the trouble of getting used to it. Hanabi sighed as she turned her alarm clock of. Due to the heat the rhythm in Suna was split in half, so that there were two separated sleep times, one to escape the tremendous heat between 2 p.m. and about 6 p.m. and the other between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. to avoid the freezing cold.

It was taking some time but Hanabi slowly grew to like that way of living. The temperature was nice and you had the best of all parts of the day. Especially in the evening until midnight the city was pulsing with life. Their market that started at 9 p.m. was gigantic and beautiful and loud and full of colors. For a lively girl like her who was restricted by her clan's traditions and their constant supervision this was amazing.

After quite some time to overview her situation and her task, she was finally done with working her way through the paperwork. Now that she finally had managed to get everything in order, she could work efficiently and this gave her some free time. And Hanabi planned to make something out of this. Hanabi was ready to get to know all the sights in Suna. And she knew exactly where she was going to start.

The most interesting thing she hadn't had time to discover yet was the Suna "Swimming and Adventure Pool". For a town in the middle of the desert that was an impressive accomplishment. Hanabi wanted to find out how it worked, not even Konoha had something like that.

Absently she played with her hair; preferably she wanted to invite the Kazekage. From the looks of it, he overworked himself and barely slept plus he was carrying that heavy gourd everywhere he went, so he probably had back ache. A nice, soothing bath would be good for him. He was silent and good company for her. Most people annoyed her pretty fast and her harsh mouth didn't exactly help her find someone to spend time with. It wasn't like she was lonely. Hanabi never needed much people around her, she preferred being by herself. However she had met some girls around her age who were tolerable.

Still spending time with the pleasant company of the Kazekage was somehow more comfortable.

The Hyuga woman stood up and stretched, and then she strolled out the door toward the Kage building. The bath was the only building that was closed during the night and opened during the heat of the day, even during the hottest time; if she wanted to go there tomorrow she had to ask him now.

…

Gaara glanced at the clock that hung above the entrance of his office. It would be 2 p.m. soon and this time he really should go home and try to sleep a bit, his back was killing him and he could feel a major headache coming, so nothing new about that. But he hadn't slept in days.

Even with Shukaku gone he didn't need much sleep. At least that was what he was telling himself; maybe it was still the old scar not leaving him alone. The fear of sleeping never left him, he preferred to meditate. But lately he had trouble concentrating.

A soft knock on his door made him raise his head. After his call the door opened to reveal the Konoha ambassador Hanabi Hyuga.

As always Gaara felt the unfamiliar sensation because the woman confused him, she made his sand go crazy and Gaara never liked things he couldn't explain. And that girl, he didn't understand in the least, though he couldn't quite say he disliked her. She had done nothing wrong to him after all.

"Excuse me Kazekage-sama; I most certainly hope I didn't interrupt your work?"

The leader of the village shook his head and offered her a seat. She had surprised him, he never expected her to adapt to Suna so quickly, but instead she seemed to truly like his village. When he was honest he'd have to admit that he expected the slender and rather frail looking young woman to give up after a few weeks and go back to Konoha complaining about the Suna life rhythm. But she hadn't and it just added to the things he couldn't explain about her.

She was wearing the dark brown colored pants they had decided on during this horrible shopping nightmare and combined with the egg-shelf colored long sleeved but very light shirt, Hanabi looked like she had spent all her life in his town.

"How may I help you, Hyuga-san?"

"I was wondering if you´d be willing to accompany me to the 'Swimming and Adventure Bath' tomorrow. I would be really interested in the architecture and the technical acquirement of it" Hanabi smiled brightly at him.

Before the crimson haired man could answer a sharp pain in his head stopped him shortly. Despite his face not showing any change Hanabi eyed him with suspicious eyes "Are you alright?"

Suppressing his surprise at her attentiveness he stopped her with a wave of his hand telling her it was nothing. The look she gave him bluntly indicating that she was not convinced.

"I´m afraid I will have to decline. However if you are interested in the construction I have just the person to keep you company"

Hanabi bit her tongue hard to prevent herself from prying why he wouldn't want to come with her. Again she was grateful to be a Hyuga for her mask of indifference did not show her disappointment. Deciding to leave she raised when suddenly the door slammed open. A look at the Kazekage showed his annoyance for just a moment

"Kankuro, how often do I have to tell you to knock?"

"He, he sorry 'bout that. Must have forgotten…" the Kazekage's brother slowed down considerately when his eyes fell upon the woman standing in his brother´s office.

A lazy smirk overtook his painted features "Well, hello there. We haven't met yet? Fancy meeting you, my name is Kankuro"

Bowing Hanabi introduced herself. Stepping closer to her the puppet master took her hand and blew a kiss on it. "It is indeed a pleasure, Hanabi-san. You sure are an enhancement to the former diplomat"

Hanabi laughed silently "I would hope so, since he was a 76 year old man with a preference for cigars"

Kankuro released her hand "I'm glad to know there is someone to keep Gaara company. I cannot believe he kept us from meeting so long, it is understandable he wanted you all for himself though you sure are beautiful entourage"

Hanabi blinked at him unmoved.

"Kankuro" Gaara´s sole word sounded dangerous enough to make the puppet master take a step back.

Gaara might be Kazekage and he no longer held the one tailed, but making him mad was still not a smart move.

Kankuro cleared his throat "I just wanted to give you my mission report"

Gaara nodded, and then explained to Kankuro that he was to go to the adventure pool with Hanabi tomorrow. Now that was something the puppet master didn't need to get told twice. Happily he agreed and went out the office.

Hanabi frowned after him "How come he doesn't get a heart stroke with all that fur?"

Gaara smiled "Well, despite his appearance Kankuro is a genius of his own, a very talented engineer. That is why I asked him to show you the pool; he invented the system and was responsible for the building. His suit was the first prototype with a special system inside it; don't ask me how it works exactly. Somehow it keeps him warm during the cold night because it is able to store the warmth. During the day however it keeps him cold. As I said Hyuga-san I´m afraid you are going to have to ask my brother for details"

Hanabi was stunned; obviously she underestimated the 'guy with make-up', who would´ve thought he was a secret genius of engineering. She scolded herself for being prejudice, as a diplomat she should know better than that.

Before she left the office as well she turned back a last time "Are you sure you´re not hurting anywhere, Kazekage-sama?"

Gaara was surprised she still remembered but sent her away with a nod of his head.

…

Naruto couldn't stop his thoughts from drifting to the Hyuga beauty again. Hell, he was gone for not even a week and he missed her like crazy. He wanted to spend time with her, preferably NOW. And he couldn't figure out why this was happening now. He had been on countless missions and sure Hinata had crossed his mind from time to time, but he had never been constantly thinking about her.

He had figured out he liked spending time with her and yes she was hot but was it more than that?

What Sakura had said to him refused to leave his mind.

Love? Was he really in love with Hinata?

No, that couldn't be it. She was simply his best friend and his best friend just happened to be a woman. But still he wanted to do things with her that he never wanted to do with any other woman and neither were those things one was supposed to want to do with his best friend.

Like wanting to touch her, running his hand through her silky hair, hug her close, kiss her lips and run his hand all over…

Oh shit. Oh no, no, no. He **was** in love with her!

Groaning he pressed his face into the nearest pillow. How could that happen to him? But maybe it wasn't all that bad.

Hinata had liked him for years, so it was a good thing, right? He was reciprocating her feelings.

_Yeah right, don't kid yourself - she is __**so**__ over you, _his inner rationality told him. When you needed it last it just had to open it big mouth.

It almost made Naruto want to talk to Kurama but he rejected that thought. Then he would have three voices in his head that argued.

_Just think about it. When she liked you what was her symptomatic behavior?_ Not only was the voice in his head annoying but evidently also a smart ass. _Just answer the question._

Naruto was able to put the most obvious things together. When she was in love with him Hinata blushed, stuttered and fainted, she was always an nervous mess around him and could barely talk to him.

Closing his eyes he felt a stabbing pain in his chest. Hinata hadn't done any of that around him in years. She didn't stutter anymore and he was at fault for that, she didn't blush anymore, last time she blushed was because of, Naruto gulped, Kiba and she hadn't fainted in like forever. And worst of all, Naruto himself was to blame.

HE had wanted her to relax around him.

HE had been the one who wanted her to behave around him like she did with KIBA.

How could he have been so stupid?

And now he got exactly what he deserved - Hinata was over him.

Bitterly he snorted; of course she was over him. Why would she wait for him that long? It had been nearly seven years now and as far as he knew she even liked him before that. She was over him, done with him and she had every right to be.

Now they were just what he intended them to be: friends. Nothing more, just friends!

How could he expect her to wait so long for him, when he didn't even understand what made her fall for him in the first place? He was a total loser back then. He was so stupid; no wonder everyone called him dense. She had liked him for years and now that he liked her back he had waited too long. Naruto wanted to kick himself, he was an idiot. Now it was too late. She would probably find someone else, someone much better than him, smarter, better looking.

The thought made him want to throw up. It was just too late.

…

Satisfied Orochimaru let his long tongue run over his thin lips. "Are you sure about this?" he asked his informant.

"Hai Orochimaru-sama, she will definitely travel to Kiri and Kumo. I heard it from someone close to the Mizukage. The exact travel details are decided as we speak and I will report as soon as I know more"

"Very good, very good indeed. You did well, I will reward you when the time comes" with that Orochimaru excused his informant.

The plan was coming along nicely. The Konoha main diplomat killed by a shinobi from another village, would cause an earthquake in their relations. Even better, she was a Hyuga if her eyes went missing around Kumo territory; it was only natural to assume the old hatred to resurgence.

The only flaw in the plan was Sasuke. He had become extremely unstable. His hatred for Konoha was clouding his judgment on how to proceed. It was best to give him the possibility to let out some of his anger. Orochimaru just hoped the time would come soon.

…

Hanabi relaxed completely and soaked in the warm water. This bath was the best thing ever.

The building had different pools in all kinds of sizes and with different specials, like waves of bubbles, it was heavenly.

It didn't have separated parts for men and women; instead everyone wore bathing suits or bikinis. Very unusual, Hanabi never know that before, but then again it wasn't a hot spring.

She did however feel very aware of her body. Self-conscious she sank deeper into the warm water. Gaara had been right about Kankuro being the perfect companion. He indeed was the head behind this great building. It was impressive how it worked, she had remarked when he had given a tour her.

The ceiling was completely made out of glass, above the pools were special glasses shaped in the form of a pyramid that multiplied the heat of the sun warming the water. The rest of the ceiling was a kind of glass that kept the temperature inside warm but not boiling. It was impressive indeed.

Hanabi Hyuga was very mesmerized and it didn't happen that often. Laughter from the other side of the pool made her look up; Kankuro was flirting heavily with three girls. Their bikinis were barely visible, just like a few strings around their bodies. Again Hanabi sank in deeper; her boring grey one piece couldn't keep up with that. She was going to buy something new soon.

Not that she was interested in Kankuro. He seemed to be a nice guy, funny; he obviously was a womanizer, kind of like Kiba was before Karui tamed him. And even the Hyuga woman had to admit without the make-up and the heavy fur, he was attractive. Not as captivating as his brother whose deep green eyes made a shiver run down her back, but she could clearly see why women would like Kankuro. He was a little bit taller than Gaara and had about the same stature, muscular but not bulky.

Hanabi found herself thinking about the Kazekage quite often, more than she would have liked. But it was something about Gaara, she just found…intoxicating and interesting. She had even asked Kankuro about Gaara's strange behavior today, the puppet master had shrugged and told her that Gaara probably just had had another headache, because he didn't sleep enough.

It didn't sit well with her that the Kazekage was hurting and didn't let her know. If it was a headache then she may be able to help him. But at the same time she was pretty sure he wouldn't let her. From what she had heard the Kazekage was not too fond of physical contact, constantly protected by his sand armor to prevent his skin from getting touched.

…

"Temari you can´t be serious! This is too much stuff, I don't have that much space in the apartment, this isn't the clan compound" shocked Shikamaru stared at the amount of boxes and furniture in the pathway.

"But of course! We throw out all of your ugly 'bachelor-lives-alone'- crap and then we will have a nice apartment" the blonde gave a stunned Shikamaru a quick peek on the lips.

He tried to stay calm but they have been discussing the move-in for days and he was starting to lose patience. It was unbelievable, his first instincts turned out to be right; a relationship was even more troublesome than he had hoped.

Why did he have to fall for such a troublesome woman?

"Temari don't you think I have a say in this too? We don't have space for all of your stuff"

"Oh but we have space for all of yours?"

"It is my apartment, Temari" he reminded her as he put down a box to turn to face her.

Temari froze, she had known it, from the first time he agreed to move in with her, she had known he didn't really mean it. Shikamaru was never the one to act active about their relationship, they were dating for six years and the person that had proposed a move-in was Hinata.

It hurt Temari that Shikamaru didn't seem interested enough in their relationship to ask her himself. Sometimes he gave her the feeling he was only in this relationship because it was convenient or because breaking up with her would be too "troublesome". During her stay in the Nara compound he had constantly been working or hanging out in his own apartment.

Was she too demanding? Isn´t it normal for a couple to move in together at some point, but Shikamaru never put any effort in this relationship. This was just the final straw.

Temari had had enough "You know what. How about that, I don't move here at all and we will just causally sleep together and pretend we are a couple. Or even better we don't see each other anymore at all" she snapped at him and turned on her heels to leave him standing in the dust.

Numbly he stared after her. Did she just do what he thought she did? This couldn't be happening and now of all times his intelligence chooses to leave him. Cursing he took off after her.

…

"Ok, so we need a hot guy to date Tenten and he has to be someone Neji isn't fond of" Karin resumed.

"Well the last part shouldn't be too hard. Neji Hyuga does not like people, he barely tolerates them breathing the same air as his highness" Kiba snorted.

"Uh, uh I have just the guy!" exited Lee stretched his arm up in the air, like a school boy, hoping up and down, fully intending to wait until someone called him up.

When Kiba finally took pity in him and asked him what it was Lee told them about a shinobi Neji had a mission with; he had called him and Lee quoted "an indolence and pathetic excuse for a shinobi". As far as Neji had told Lee, he and that guy had had a fight about the right strategy and Neji referred to him only as "the douchebag", tough his name was Tonbo something. That alone said much about their relationship because Neji was usually very collected and restrained from using insults in any form.

"But does he look any good?" Karui asked eagerly because he did seem like the perfect candidate.

Lee shrugged, Neji hadn't told him that. It didn't usually come up in their conversations, but starting today Lee would ask him about the looks of any guy he didn't like.

"Let´s assume he does look presentable, how do we get him to ask out Tenten?" Karin mused.

Kiba grinned at that, he already had a plan "I will take care of that"

…

Getting him to ask out Tenten was as easy as stealing a lollipop from a baby. Kiba simply had assumed that the disapproval was a mutual feeling. So when Tonbo Sasaki went to a bar a few days later, Kiba followed him.

"Damn that stuck up Hyuga" he muttered sinking down onto the stool next to the dark haired male.

As planned Sasaki turned to him immediately "Let me guess: Hyuga Neji"

And just like that Sasaki walked into the trap. After the first contact was made, Kiba had to agree with Neji´s judgment about him, he was a douchebag. It wasn't that Kiba didn't enjoy complaining about Neji, but apparently Neji was the only Hyuga Enzo detested. Hearing him talk about all the hot Hyuga woman, especially the one who was the main ambassador of Konoha took a lot out of Kiba not to punch him in the face.

But at least the conversation was going in the right direction, Kiba mentions Neji close friend and teammate Tenten and that she was quite cute and how Neji disliked someone making a move on her. It wasn't a lie entirely just the part about him getting worked up about someone asking her out was a little exaggerated.

As on cue the guy was immensely interested. When the evening was over Kiba was a hundred percent sure Sasaki would ask Tenten out. Which left them with the other problem, making sure Tenten said yes, but that was the girl's problem. As for Kiba he leaned back against the counter and ordered another beer.

…

"You know what you need?" Karin handed Tenten and Karui their drinks. The two redheads had invited Tenten over for a girl's night. And after the first round of Margaritas the conversation had finally reached Neji Hyuga.

"You need to get your mind off the Hyuga idiot, he isn't worth it. I mean there are hundreds of guys out there who would love to date you. When was the last time you went on a date?"

The brunette shrugged "I really used to love to date, you know. The nervousness and the expectations and the guy being attentive and nice to you, I liked all of it. But after I realized that I had this thing for Neji I stopped dating because it just wouldn't be fair to them"

"Rubbish!" Kiba´s girlfriend intervened "I don't see why you shouldn't go out just because you like Neji. In fact it will help you. You´ve been miserable for months, so I think you deserve a night out. It doesn't mean you have to like him of fall for him. Just enjoy yourself for one night. Go to dinner, let him pay and let him flatter you. It'll be good for you and help repair the damage done to your ego by Neji and his blindness"

Tenten took a sip from her drink; it wasn't like she had never thought about that. Karin and Karui did have a point, she did get asked out from time to time. But what was the use when her mind was constantly occupied by her former teammate, it just didn't seem right.

On the other hand Neji had the occasional date and he didn't care about how she felt at all. Granted that was unfair since he had no clue how she felt, but it still hurt her.

"Maybe you are right"

Triumphantly the conspirators exchange glances, this was a lot easier than they assumed, and hopefully Kiba would be as successful.

"Great, so you promise to go out with the next guy that asks. No excuses! Oh and we'll help you get ready for your date. This will be so great; we'll spoil you with mani-pedi and do your hair. You´re gonna look gorgeous and no thinking about Neji that night"

For a second Tenten looked a bit wary, how come they were so interested in her love life? But Karin was just like Lee, she could be overexcited as for Karui, - well perhaps she was bored. In the end the weapon mistress nodded in agreement.

…

Finally back in Konoha! Naruto breathed in deeply. The mission had taken longer than he expected. Initially he had hoped to get it down in a wee, but in the end it had taken him the double amount of time. It was the middle of the night and he had only made it because he was running back most of way. This was Tsunade's fault, it only took that long because Baa-chan had forbidden him to use the Flying Thunder God Technique. She had said it was too dangerous since he still hadn't perfected it yet. But how was he ever able to if he didn't have time to train?

Thanks to that he was beat and tired and he longed to take a shower to rid himself of the sweat. Well actually he wanted to see Hinata more badly than that, but it was the middle of the night. Going there right now, would make him look like an obsessed maniac.

After a refreshing shower Naruto dried his hair and let his gaze wander around his bedroom. As always he was alone. He hesitated before his hands grasped the key Hinata had given him, that hung around his neck on a silver chain.

Going over to her place was very tempting, but it was late, she would be asleep. He would wake her and then she wouldn't be able to sleep again and…

It was useless anyway. Despite his arguing, his feet were already dragging him out of his lonesome apartment. This wasn't a good idea. Going over to the place of the girl you love knowing she doesn't reciprocate your feelings and spending the night there. But then again, waking up in the morning and not being alone, having someone to sleep in the same apartment with. Not someone, it was even better because this was Hinata.

Naruto felt his heart beating faster and a smile crept up his face. Inaudible as possible, he opened the door and breathed in the smell of this place. It smelled incredible, like homemade cookies, warm tea and food. It smelled like love. No it smelled like home.

Hanabi´s room was the one to the left. For a second a thought crossed his mind, what if he "accidently" mistook them and went into the room to the right, where Hinata slept. Just for a second, just to see her.

Quickly he got rid of this thought; he was not a pervert, even if his thoughts were completely innocent in this moment. Naruto just wanted to SEE her after all.

He opened the door to Hanabi's room and then he went still, just stood there staring open mouthed. The room was freshly painted he couldn't smell it anymore but he could see it. Unless Hanabi had a hidden preference for orange and he doubted it. The room was painted white with orange stripes placed elegantly here and there. The wall opposite the bed however was painted orange all over. On this wall hung pictures, five different shuffled from one corner to the other.

One of them was a picture of their old academy class, a picture of all the guys and him taken a few years ago. Then there was one of Team 7, when his eyes gazed at Sasuke´s face, Naruto´s expression darkened, before his eyes wandered to the picture of him and Hinata.

They had been working in the garden when Hanabi asked them to take a picture. Hinata had dirt smeared over her cheekbone, yet she looked absolutely stunning, the sun made her hair look navy blue and her eyes sparkle in pale lavender. He had his arm around her shoulder and a stupid grin on his face. Damn they looked good together. He felt his heart getting heavy at that thought.

The last picture was the one he showed her in the album, the one with his parents. How she got her hands on a copy of that one, he didn't know. But Hinata had her special ways he assumed with a smile.

Hinata had done all of this for him, his heart beat rapidly. She had known he'd come and she had painted the walls in his favorite color and hung up beautiful pictures. This room gave him a feeling more homely than his apartment ever had.

…

Behind the wall Hinata deactivated her Byakugan. When she had heard someone opening the front door, her first thought had been that it was a burglar. She had activated her Byakugan to identify who she was facing but her heartbeat had quickened when she had realized Naruto had taken her offer. It made her insanely happy. When he hesitated at Hanabi´s door Hinata was afraid he had changed his mind, but maybe he just wasn't sure which door was the right one. For a short moment Hinata found she was hoping he would mistake them and visit her, they could stay up and talk the rest of the night.

But it was over when he opened the door, Hinata watched him for another minute enjoying how happy he was with the design of his room. It looked like she was making breakfast for two tomorrow. Naruto was in the next room, a wall separating them. Hinata almost laughed bitterly at the irony, there had always been a wall between them she was unable to tear down, because their feelings didn't match. With a wall between them, this was the closest they would ever be. It wasn't that she wasn't happy with being friends but she also would have never guessed that being friends with someone could cause her so much pain.

* * *

**Any comments, suggestions, critism is welcomed.**

**Tell me what you think**


	18. Chapter 15

**Well, the last Naruto chapter really surprised me. I'm really surprised, but well I'll still upload the story as I planned it. By the way I really think Naruto is a great manga, but Kishimoto really has no idea about women. No offense, but I just hate his characterization of all these female Sasuke obsessed fangirls, who fall for him for no apparent reason and stick to him after he'd almost killed them...**

**Anyway...thans to all those who took their time to review.**

**As always, Naruto does not belong to me.**

* * *

**-15-**

Taking a deep breath Shikamaru took in the scenery of the place he would shortly live in, with Temari. It was part of the Nara complex, but still close to the forest and just a little bit away from the rest, so that they could keep their privacy. Basically it was perfect for the two of them and if he had had thought about it months ago he would have spared himself a lot of trouble.

As he watched the beautiful figure of his girlfriend shouting at a guy that wasn't him Shikamaru felt gratitude and relief flooding through him once again. Thinking about how close he was too lose her, made all hairs on his body stand up, and he thanked all heavens that he was able to convince Temari not to leave him. The two days were they were 'on a break' most likely were the worst he had ever experienced.

…

_Temari refused to talk to him. He hadn't been able to reach her before she entered the Suna embassy and Shikamaru wasn't allowed inside since she told the guards not to let him pass. She obviously didn't want to see him and he had no idea what had gone wrong between them. _

_One second they were happily moving in together and the next one she dumped him. He rather not thought about it that way, there was no way she would have. They loved each other. This couldn't be happening; she couldn't break up with him, simple as it was. He loved her, he couldn't lose her. _

_Sitting in the garden of the Nara compound, staring blankly at the Shogi board, Shikamaru replayed the events over and over again. The conversation he had with Temari before she stormed out, what was he missing?. Was she mad because he had told her all of her stuff wouldn't fit in his apartment? _

_And the talk he had with Ino about that matter had not been much of a help, she had looked at Shikamaru like he was crazy and told him to use his brain for something useful for once and also that she was on Temari´s side. Apparently he could be glad he wasn't dating Ino, because according to her she would have dumped his "sorry ass" ages ago. Unfortunately that hadn't been of any help. _

_Shikamaru wondered if he was such a bad boyfriend, but then why would Temari stay with him for six years if he was. Closing his eyes he went into his infamous 'thinking-position', letting their relationship display before his eyes. _

_What had made Temari mad? Why did she tick off? What was he missing?_

_Frowning he remembered the day Hinata had asked him to let Temari move in the compound temporarily, of course he had immediately jumped at the chance. And in his opinion it went perfectly well. During that time Shikamaru had to work a lot and when he was done he visited his apartment to make room for her. It took forever to put his stuff away, he really had tried. _

_But it was still too small. Maybe he should have asked his mother to stay inside the compound, they could have a house only for them but Shikamaru hadn't known whether or not Temari would like living so close to his mother. As the new head of the Nara clan usually he'd have to stay at the compound but Shikamaru felt that it was too much pressure for him. _

_He had asked his mom to be allowed to live by himself at least for a bit. _

_And now here he was sitting in his thinking position in the middle of the clan compound wondering why his girlfriend ignored him and apparently decided they were done. Another repeat of the conversation followed the one before and slowly Shikamaru started to understand Temari´s reaction. From her point of view it must have looked like he didn't want to live with her. Shikamaru sighed and fell back, he was such an idiot. He needed to clear things up between them, but in order to do that he had talk to Temari. Given he could get her to grant him an audience and chances weren't likely. _

_How troublesome because that would leave him with one option only. And sneaking in an official foreign embassy and thus breaking about a dozen laws, that was very troubling. But Temari was worth it, only that woman could make him go through that much trouble and get away with it. _

_..._

_Having her head supported on both her hands Temari looked over the page. The problem was, it being the same page since three hours ago from the same contract two days ago. Ever since she last saw Shikamaru, he had tried to talk to her every day but Temari had given out clear orders to not let him in. And, oh, had he tried dirty tricks, even going as far to ask Tsunade to deliver important scrolls personally but it was no use. The sand kunoichi had made up her mind and she wasn't going to change it…_

_Groaning Temari admitted that she was lying to herself. She missed the lazy ass like crazy. Maybe she had overreacted and she should talk to him, but Temari was just sick of it. It was always her who tried to keep the relationship moving and this time she was too stubborn to give in. At least one time in their relationship she'd like to see him try. Only once she'd liked to __**see **__what she already knew deep in her mind. She wanted to see that he loved her as much as she loved him. Was that too much to ask?_

_On the other hand whenever she needed him he was there. She didn't even have to say anything at all; she didn't need to tell him to let him know she needed him he was just there. _

_She had been too harsh to him, their relationship was more than just casual sex, a lot more and she knew it. First thing tomorrow she would visit him and sort things out. Sighing she stood up it was no use working when all her thoughts revolved around a certain pineapple head. Having decided to talk to him the next day, she might be able to sleep tonight. Upon opening the door to her room, she was greeted with a surprise._

"_Huh…? Shikamaru what the hell are you doing in my room? How…how did you get in here?" with narrowed eyes she watched the male that was now facing her. _

_Temari may had decided to talk to him, but that didn't mean he was forgiven, even more so since he somehow managed to get past the guards. _

"_Temari, can we talk please? I committed a felony just to see you, so can you at least hear me out?" _

_Crossing her arms she waited for Shikamaru to continue. Temari would never admit it, but knowing he had done this for her made her heart beat faster._

_Carefully he stepped closer to her "Listen, I'm sorry I didn't mean for you to feel like I didn't want to live together because I do Temari, I really do. I was an idiot I can see that now, but I love you. So will you please move in with me?" _

_The blonde almost smiled, Shikamaru really didn't have the nerve for any unnecessary words. And he most certainly he was not romantic. Being honest that was what Temari loved about him, since she also could not find too much sense in these things. So she understood the true meaning of his words, yet she was reluctant to make it too easy for him._

"_I love you too Shikamaru, but I´m sick and tired off feeling like I´m the only one who cares about our relationship" Temari let her arms sink to her side in a disarming gesture._

_Shikamaru took it as a sign that it was save to step closer to her. "Yes, I understand and I apologize I ever made you feel that way. I love you and I don't want to lose you, Temari. From now on I will try harder to make you see it. You know being in this relationship is the most troublesome thing I've ever been in but I wouldn't wanna miss a second of it. It is important to me, YOU are important to me" _

_The sand blond woman laughed silently "Obviously, since you broke into an embassy. You could go to prison for it, you know?" _

_Shikamaru grinned "If you forgive me I would gladly spend some time there. So, will you give me another chance to ask you to move in with me?" _

_She put her arms around his neck and kissed him "You know sometimes you can be pretty stupid"_

_Shikamaru felt like a huge rock just fell of his heart "Well, that´s good troublesome woman because I missed you" _

_He leaned down to meet her halfway. _

_Her forehead leaned against his, and Shikamaru smiled a lazy smile at his girlfriend „I have another surprise for you. Care to see where we will move to?" _

_Raising an eyebrow Temari told him that she was already familiar with his apartment. _

…

"_Shikamaru this is amazing. Are you sure it is alright with your Mother?" stunned the Sand kunoichi observed her new home. _

"_Sure she's overjoyed to have us here. But you'll have to deal with her habits of coming over or inviting us to dinner" he shrugged. _

_Truthfully Shikamaru was really happy that Temari liked the place, happy and relieved because he wouldn't have known what to do if she hadn't liked this idea._

…

Two weeks later they were almost ready to move in. Their last stuff was currently being transported into their house, with the help of their friends of course.

"You know instead of just standing there looking smart you could actually help, lazy ass" Naruto grumbled.

He had been the unfortunate being who had got into an 'argument' with Temari because he, according to Temari, had been goofing around with the good porcelain. Something the loud blond denied vigorously.

To Shikamaru´s surprise everyone was here except Ino, she had been gone for a mission last week and was due to come back every day now. With growing interest he watched how Tenten and Neji both refused to talk to each other and had ignored the other one for the whole time. He hadn't figured out what had happened between them, though Lee and Karin were suspiciously quiet and Kiba had exchanged looks with Karui that, for once, weren't suggestive at all.

They knew something for sure, but finding it out and then get enfolded in it would only prove to be troublesome.

Neji glanced at Tenten once again, this woman made him so angry he wanted punch something. And he had an idea who the perfect punching ball was.

…

_To everyone´s surprise the plan did indeed work out flawlessly. Karin, Kiba, Karui and Lee were enthusiastically waiting for Phase 2 to begin. _

_Tonbo Sasaki had asked out Tenten according to plan and she took his offer according to plan even if she didn't like him too much, but she figured that maybe he would turn out to be a nice guy. And two days later, the day of the big date, after the girls fixed up Tenten they were sitting in a nice restaurant._

_Meanwhile Lee was making sure Neji would find out and see the couple. He casually dropped Sasaki's name while talking to Neji and the Hyuga took the bite. When Lee told Neji about Tenten having a date with him, he almost lost his composure. Later Lee swore he never saw Neji changing colors so fast. First he was red from anger, then he paled before going red all over again, a second later he had already stormed away. And Lee reported the success to the other conspirators._

…

_This was the most horrible date Tenten ever had, including the one were her date had tried to sell her drugs or the one where the guy had been so terrified of her he had brought his mom to the date. Even worse than the one where…wait a second why was she this horrible at picking guys?_

_But somehow Tonbo Sasaki was more disgusting than anyone she had ever met, or maybe that was because she hadn't met anyone in such a long time. He had tried to feel her up three times already before they even entered the restaurant. Then there was the fact that he made suggestive comments ever since he first set eyes on her, some girls might take it as a compliment but even that was kind of hard when he leered at every female including her, like a piece of meat. _

_Tenten had set up an escape plan for cases like this, thankfully…well she used to have a plan - _

_Note to self,_ _kill Karui and Karin for dressing me up. _

_In this skin tight dress it would be impossible for her to climb through the toilet window, unless she ripped it but it had been very expensive. For the tenth time that day Tenten wondered just why Karin and Karui had forced her to doll up that much. _

_Annoyed she blew a lock out of her face, damn those redheads, she shouldn't have trusted them, especially not with her hair. _

_The both of them had been surprised to see that without the buns. Tenten had perfectly beautiful locks, opposed to their straight hair and spend half an hour scolding her for hiding those beautiful locks. Personally Tenten thought her locks were annoying and untamable, hence the buns._

_Tenten missed her buns and she missed her Chinese style loose fitting ninja attire. Now she had to sit through the date with locks that went to her shoulder and a red dress that didn't leave much to the imagination. _

_Chocolate brown eyes narrowed and she promised herself to never trust a red head again. _

_A hand that placed itself boldly on hers snapped her out of her thoughts and Tenten felt the urge to hit him. This guy was unbelievable and she was almost impressed he had the guts to lean over and grab her hand while staring at her chest like it was the lottery and he just won. _

_The same moment Tenten decided to just stand up and leave, then hope he would go after her and try something funny, therefore giving her an opportunity to hurt him, she felt a familiar presence that made goose bumps occur all over her skin. A sense of foreboding settled into the pit of her stomach._

…

_In some dark corner of the restaurant four pairs of ears and eyes went on alert. _

"_Here we go!" Kiba whispered satisfied. _

…

"_What do you think you're doing Tenten?" taken by surprise she blinked at the tall form of Hyuga Neji who gloomed over them dangerously._

_In order to show Neji that he wasn't so big Sasaki stood up immediately, followed suit by the weapon mistress. _

"_What do you want here, Hyuga?" Sasaki puffed himself up and glared at Neji._

_But the Hyuga prodigy ignored him and kept scowling at his teammate. _

…

_Karui grinned like a cat " Ah, man now I wish I had popcorn. This beats the movie we watched last week!"_

…

_Tenten was torn between confusion as to why the hell Neji was here and why the hell he cared, and anger. As most of the time the internal argument was won by anger. _

_Her eyes flashed with the emotion "I don't see how this is any of your business, Neji. But if you have to know I was enjoying my date" _

_Ok, so the enjoying part was a lie but HE didn't have to know that. _

"_It is my business, if you date such a scum" _

…

_Four mouths went "Uhh!"_

…

"_Hey" the 'scum' protested, but Neji proceeded to ignore him. _

"_Oh really?" standing akimbo her voice got dangerously low. "How come, Neji? Last time I checked I was single and allowed to date all the scum I wanted" _

_Another hey from Sasaki was heard. _

…

_With a nod Karin agreed "Yes now explain that Neji"_

_Lee took her hand and squeezed it happily "Admit you´re undying love"_

…

_Neji on the other hand did have some trouble explaining it. Why was he so worked up again? Sure the guy was a jerk but up until now he never cared about her dates. _

_This was all Hinata´s fault. She had put the thoughts about Tenten in his brain and now she constantly occupied his mind. But still whether she wanted to date that idiot or not was none of his business, but the sole thought about it made him want to rip the douchebags head off. Crossing his arms he stared at her darkly, for the first time realizing how she looked. His eyes went wide._

_All heavens and hell, what happened to her? The dark red silk of her dress clung to every curve of her body and although it went past her knees, two cuts on each sides of her tights showed way more skin than he would have liked. The candle light illuminated her form and her light brown locks danced around her face teasingly. It hit him like a blow in the middle of the stomach._

_Was she this sexy the entire time? _

_WAIT! _

_Did that mean she actually dressed up for the douchebag?! Neji rarely lost his cool but it was like something snapped and autopilot took over. _

"_Well we are on a team and if you run around looking like a prostitute my reputation is damaged"_

…

_It were now Karin's eyes that widen "Oh, that can´t be good"_

…

_Tenten gasped in shock "Are you calling me a hooker?" _

…

_Chanting all four conspirators begged quietly "No, say no!"_

…

_Clenching his jaw Neji looked at her condescending "No …"_

_Relieved they leaned back "Good!"_

…

"…_but you sure make it look like it" _

…

"_No" that were four desperate voices._

_Karui deadpanned "Telling the girl you like, she´s a prostitute; now that is a pick-up line I haven't heard before"_

…

_Never in her life had Tenten felt more humiliated, she felt tears daring to make their way to her eyes. Usually Tenten wasn't someone to cry easily, but those tears of anger she couldn't hold back. Not trusting her voice she just turned around and stalked out the restaurant. _

_Kiba turned to the others who still sat there frozen in shock. How could their plan go so wrong? Up until now everything was perfect. _

_Dryly he commented "At least we didn't get caught"_

…

If Neji ever got his hands on the douchebag, he would...

It was his fault Tenten hadn't talked to him in almost two weeks. That was the same amount of time he had tried to ignore his guilty conscience while figuring out his feelings.

Stupid Hinata putting thoughts in his head. Stupid Tenten for dating a stupid jerk and stupid dressing up for HIM, he cursed.

And did she have to bend over in front of him? Stupid Shikamaru for stupid moving in with his girlfriend.

Maybe he should apologize. Technically he may have insulted her without meaning to do so. Neji suppressed a groan, she was the one dating the asshole and he ended up apologizing how was that fair?

…

Naruto couldn't even remember the last time he slept at his place. Since the first night at Hinata's and an incredible breakfast he had gradually left more and more of his stuff there, now it was like they were living together. And he loved it. It was warm and cozy and homely and perfect and Hinata lived in it.

He had never been more happy, Hinata cooked for him, when he entered the room it smelled like home and she would welcome him with a warm smile and a meal, they would talk and watch T.V. and sometimes they would stay up the whole night and in the morning he woke up to the smell of breakfast made for the two of them. And he loved it, all of it.

He didn't want to leave anymore, but at the same time it was also killing him. He was close to Hinata but not as close as he liked to be. Sometimes his desires for her were overwhelming and he was afraid he was just going to lose it and kiss her senseless, but he couldn't.

He had had years to make her his but he just had to fall for her when she was over him, because he had been too dense. Naruto had trouble thinking straight, it didn't matter if she was around or not, she was always on his mind. She always left him wondering how he could make her happy. Wanting to give her back a piece of the happiness she gave him.

And then there was the thing about other men, he wanted to rip their eyes out for even looking at her in that leering manner. Who did they think she was?

Naruto didn't deny that Hinata was beautiful, it was just that all those ignorant idiots only saw her body, whereas he knew the real Hinata, so he was not a pervert like them. Even if his thoughts about her weren't as pure as they should be.

In reality Naruto had a very physical reaction to her and living so close to her made it hard for him to hide it. Up until now Hinata hadn't realized anything; he sure hoped it would stay that way.

She was gorgeous on the in- and outside and no man in the world deserved her. He at the very least since he had chosen to ignore her feelings for so long.

For the millionth time that day he glanced at the woman that made his heart miss a beat. Hinata was putting down a box labeled "clothes" and smiled up at him "Looks like we're almost done".

She looked radiant today, just like any other day, he thought and groaned inwardly.

Her hair was put up into a high ponytail, the sunrays reflecting on it in a deep midnight blue and her eyes shining like an intense grey. She hid her perfect body with a dark blue jeans and the orange shirt he gave her for her birthday. In other words he could hardly breathe and his feet were moving in her direction automatically.

"See I knew orange was a great color for you!" he whispered into her ear, trying not to make it too obvious that he was breathing in her scent.

She whipped around and smiled "But of course, I love your gift, told you it was going to be my favorite"

He grinned "You should wear it more often. Can you believe Sakura refuses to wear orange" he added seeing his pink haired friend walking by and raised his voice to make sure it'll reach his former teammate.

Said woman snorted in response which made Naruto snicker.

"But seriously you look great" he turned back to Hinata who bit her lips to hid the amusement of the short interaction between Naruto and Sakura.

When she looked into his deep blue eyes, shining with so much sincerity, she had to fight hard to keep her blush down and was grateful when he laughed, putting both his hands behind his head. "You know orange is an awesome color after all"

That part he said loud enough for everyone to hear, getting more snorts and a few mumbles.

"Hey it is! Hinata tell them!" the blonde whined.

…

Hinata smiled as she watched her favorite blonde drop of a piece of furniture, which got him another warning from Temari. Again she was reminded just how attractive Naruto was, his shirt wasn't tight but she could still make out his muscular chest and perfect six packs, secretly she admired how the muscles on his back played when he lifted the heavy couch up.

Shaking her head vigorously she turned away. Why was she doing this to herself?

The plan was to get over him, not fall more deeply for him, unfortunately lately her feelings surfaced more and more since now they were technically living together. It was strange- like a force keeping her from locking her emotions for him away. Worst part was that Hinata was afraid Naruto might realize it; he had been acting weird lately. Hinata was a hundred percent sure he assumed she was over him, and given that he wasn't afraid to let her close. But what if he figured out she was far from getting over him?

He'd probably retreat because it'd be creepy for him. Hinata sighed, he would soon enough find a woman he loved and then…?

The thought made her heart clasped painfully. She could never be the woman he loved; Hinata knew she wasn't his type. He liked loud, powerful and colorful women, someone like Sakura. Hinata was fairly sure he was over his former teammate but still, she was nothing like Sakura or any other woman he might be attracted too. And she knew since all the women he had dated briefly before had been somewhat similar to his first crush.

Thinking of Sakura made Hinata shiver uncomfortable. She still had to talk to Naruto about her situation and it was not something she was looking forward to.

…

_Sakura stood in front of the door for five minutes, staring at it in hope it would open without her having to make a move. After realizing that was unlikely to happen, she finally knocked. After an answer inside she entered Hinata's office. _

_Smiling the Hyuga heiress motioned the medic to take a seat. _

"_The months over, so here I am Hinata. I made up my mind" _

_Hinata put her pen aside and looked her in the eyes "Sakura-san, whatever your decision might be, I want you to be sure about it" _

_Remembering the last few weeks Sakura nodded, yes she was sure. "I want to take the offer if possible" _

_Hinata nodded the decision did not surprise her "We will have to talk to Tsunade-sama and Shizune-san but if they don't have any objections, you will depart by the end of the next month" _

_Sakura stood up "If you don't mind Hinata, I would like to talk to them myself and tell you tomorrow" _

_When Sakura had left Hinata put her head in her hands, Naruto would be so mad at her for sending his best friend to Suna. First Sasuke, who was still missing, then Sai who was in Kumo as a diplomat and now Sakura would leave. She should at least tell him herself but …_

_There was no but; she had to talk to him. Not only about Sakura but Hinata would leave this week to visit Sai in Kumo and Shino in Kiri. It would take about two to three months. It was like a checkup to show politeness and interest, and to talk to the ambassadors to inspect how everyone was doing and evaluate the next steps and goals._

_The day had been tiring and so Hinata decided to go home a little earlier then usual._

_When the dark haired girl climbed up the stairs, she could hear noises inside. A smile spread across her face, Naruto was home. _

_She stopped, that sounded so good: Naruto was home. _

_Like he would live there - but he didn't. Well not officially, should she ask him to move in? Her heart started to race, and then they would live together like a real…_

_Shit, why couldn't her thoughts stop torturing her? _

_HE DOESN'T LOVE YOU, YOU MORON! __she scolded herself harshly._

_Before she could open the door, it flew open to reveal a happy Naruto. _

"_Hey, you're back early. Are you sick? Do I have to be worried" he pulled her in. _

"_No I'm fine, just tired" she smiled at him._

"_You cooked?" Hinata looked around in disbelief; she couldn't believe he'd cook for her. _

_The blond laughed "What? I wanted to prove to you that you're cooking lessons weren't wasted"_

…

"Damn, these stuff his heavy!" Naruto complained.

"Stop whining, you wimp" Temari told him.

"Hey you can't talk like that to your future Hokage" Naruto retorted.

"Oh, yeah right. Congrats by the way" Shikamaru said stepping closer and extending his hand.

…

"_Naruto…I asked you here because I have something to tell you" the Hokage regarded the blond in front of her. She saw how Naruto's head tilted in awaiting interest "The council and I, we have decided that it is time for me to step down as Hokage" _

_Tsunade almost grinned when she saw Naruto face, it was something between excitement and 'if-you-don't-make-me-Hokage-I-will-let-the-Kyuubi -out'. _

"_Therefore I will need a successor…" _

_By now the boy was hoping up and down nervously nodding his head. "Congratulations, Naruto. You will be announced Rokudaime by the end of next few months. There is still something to discuss so…" _

_But as expected Naruto didn't listen to her anymore, he was busy cheering loudly running around in circles and waving his arms frankly, what she didn't expect however was that he turned on heel and ran out of her office. _

"_NARUTO! This conversation is not finished"_

…

_Rubbing her temples Hinata read the contract again, it was important for it to be flawless, even if it was the most boring thing in the world. Her head shot up, did someone just call her name? _

"…_ata, Hinata, HINATA,__** HINATA**__" Naruto slammed the door open and ran in full force "I'm Hokage! I did it, I'm Hokage" _

_The dark haired woman hopped from her chair and rounded the desk "Really? I'm so happy for you Naruto. Congratulations" _

_Before she had ended Naruto had pulled her into a hug, dancing around with her in the office, spinning her around. Hinata laughed. He set her down, still not letting go. _

"_Can you believe I did it?" _

_Hinata nodded happily "I always knew you could do it" _

_Slowly the expression in his face changed, his features softened and his grin became a gentle smile "Yeah, you did, didn't you?" _

_He looked at her and she suddenly she was painfully aware just how close they were. She could feel his breath tickling her skin, his heat warmed her cold hands, and all he needed to do was dip his head and… _

"_Ah, sorry Hinata" abruptly he let go of her and stepped back like he just got burned. Scratching his head sheepishly he avoided her eyes. _

_Trying to get rid of the awkwardness she laughed "You will be a great Hokage, Naruto" _

"_I know won´t I? Man, I'm so excited…Oh I gotta go tell everyone else. I'll see you tonight Hinata" _

_As fast as he came he left her office, almost like he was fleeing it. Frowning she sat back down, but had to smile when she heard a far away, faint "Wohoo!" _

…

"What you didn't get paid a visit from the maniac? He broke my door when he told me" Kiba said annoyed.

It was starting to get dark and thankfully they were almost done moving. Tomorrow all that was left for the couple was decorating and clean up from the move.

"Guys!" Ino ran towards them "Oh, you're already done? My damn mission just ended two hours ago. Well, at least I didn't miss anything important - like the housewarming party. So what can I do?"

It didn't take much longer to finish and when everyone finally left Shikamaru hugged his girlfriend from behind "Are you happy?"

She nodded and rested her arms on top of his.

The genius smirked lazily "So…? Wanna have our very own housewarming?"

Temari rose an eyebrow "Never too lazy for that, are you?"

"Some things are just less troublesome than others" He picked her up and carried her to the bed.

* * *

**Any comments, questions, remarks, ideas, proposals, critism is welcomed and appreciated.**

**Tell me what you think.  
**


	19. Chapter 16

**Well, I hope someone is still reading this story. Thanks to those who review. I'm very grateful and happy about it.  
**

**Anyway, I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

**-16-**

In deep concentration Sasuke took deep breaths. The Jutsu he was working on, was highly complicated and aside from Orochimaru he was most likely the only person to even know it existed. It had been developed especially to fight a Jinchurriki or to get them under control in case the human was unable to keep the beast in check and it was exactly what Sasuke needed. He still was unable to do it correctly, though. Even with the Sharingan activated it was very difficult to time the hand signs and despite Sasuke not being low on chakra the amount needed to suppress a Jinchurriki's ability to use demonic chakra was large and he was not yet able to release the giant amount. More importantly in order to use the seal the amount wasn't only big but it also took perfect control and no matter how perfect Sasuke's abilities were, chakra control had never been his strongest point.

But he would get it right, sooner or later and then… a small smile tugged on his lips. Once he did Naruto would fall and Konoha with him.

"You still lack chakra control, Sasuke-kun"

The wicked smile disappeared to be replaced by a frown and a clench of the jaw. As if he didn't know that himself, "What do you want Orochimaru"

The Sannin simply ignored his rather unfriendly remark "I simply thought that I gave you the good news personally"

At this Sasuke's ears perked up "Well, then tell me"

"It's time. In only a few days the Konoha main diplomat will take her leave to visit the embassies in Kiri and afterwards in Kumo. And what do you think will happen when her body will be found at the border of Kumo right after she visited in order to keep the alliance. Dead with her eyes missing…" his slotted eyes were watching Sasuke's every move.

"Hyuga, eh? She shouldn't be much of a challenge. Hinata has always been weak, I barely remember her" the raven haired man went back into his meditation stance "I'll still need to know who'll travel with her"

"Don't worry. As far as I know only another relative of hers. He shouldn't put up much of a fight"

Sasuke snorted "Of course not. At this rate the only person who I will need to make an effort to kill will be Naruto"

…

"Hey Cho, do you have a minute?" nervously Ino walked up behind her friend. She had seen him on his way home from the academy and Ino had decided that it was now or never.

It had been more than a week since his break-up with Ami and truthfully Chouji didn't seem like he was hung up on her.

Her heart was beating rapidly and anxious feeling was making her sweat, but she had had enough. Ino didn't want to ask herself what could have been for the rest of her life, if he wasn't interested in her she'd rather know and then it would be easier to move on and they could go back to being friends.

And if he did want to be with her…. Well, she didn't think that trough just yet.

With a frown Chouji observed his blond teammate as he asked her in, she seemed tense. He offered her a glass of water; which she declined and he raised a brow when she started fiddling with her finger in a way that reminded him strongly of Hinata.

"Ino what's up?"

Her fingers picked up speed and she started to look very uncomfortable. "I need to tell you something, Cho. It's a little complicated"

She bit her lip. She never had done that before, usually the guys would ask out her. But the likelihood of that happening was like zero even after sending him a lot of signals he didn't pick up. Telling someone what you felt, was it that nerve wracking for guys as well?

Expectantly Chouji leaned closer over the table. Truth be told, Ino was scared. She didn't want to risk their friendship but she also didn't want to wonder for the rest of her life, what could have been.

Taking another deep breath she poured it out "I …I like you"

Chouji kept quiet, his mind still trying to understand what just happened. Did she mean it the way he assumed? That was most likely not it, but what else could it be.

"Ino, I don't exactly understand" he said slowly

Irritated she raised her gaze that had been fixed on his wooden table "What's there not to understand?"

He shook his head "Come on Ino. You know what I mean"

Standing up she stared at him both eyebrows rose "Will you tell me what the hell you mean or not?" She didn't mean to raise her voice but it had taken all of her bravery to tell him that and now she felt vulnerable thus making her defenses go up.

Chouji shrugged putting on an indifference face "Come on I'm not the kind of guy you usually would be interested in"

Ino narrowed her eyes "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Ino please, don't take this the wrong wa…"

"Basically you're saying that I'm shallow?" anger exploded in her, and she desperately ignored the intense feeling of hurt that crept in her voice.

"You know what. It's fine, I just wanted to let you know. I hope we can still be friends" she turned to the door trying not to let her tears fall in front of him. She should have known, Chouji simply wasn't interested in her that way. To him she was shallow and fake and….

Meanwhile Chouji's mind was racing, was he really just letting her go? He had liked Ino for years but he was afraid to ask her out, because he was aware that his 'physical' features didn't match her standards.

"Ino!"

The woman turned around

"Wanna go out tomorrow?"

A smile spread across her face.

…

Neji stared at the door like he wanted to tear it down with his bare hands. His arms were crossed under his chest and he tapped his foot impatiently. It was just a door; he should be able to just knock. But there was the fact that Tenten was behind that door and if he knocked he would have to say something to her and chances were it had to be an apology.

He did say some things that might have been misleading but how was her misinterpretation of his statement Neji's fault? Still the guilt was eating at him constantly and he had enough.

With a sigh he finally knocked, he had missed Tenten and he had missed talking to her, so he would swallow his pride and apologize. The things this woman made him do.

The door opened "What do you want, Hyuga?"

"Can I come in?"

"Absolutely not, I wouldn't want to harm your flawless reputation by letting you in a pleasure house" her voice was mocking but the hard eyes gave her hurt and anger away.

"Fine have it your way" Neji simple picked her up and before the perplex girl could move a finger they were inside, door closed.

"What do you think you're doing?" she snarled at him after he set her down.

"You wanted it the hard way, so here we are. Listen Tenten, maybe there was some misunderstanding between us" he stated calmly.

Where was her weapon porch when she needed it? Right now she wanted to chop his head off. Did he just fucking call the fact that he told her she looked like a hooker a 'misunderstanding'?

Neji continued "I think we both said some things…."

"We **both** said some things? We **both**?" her voice reached a level of shrieking she didn't know she was capable of.

"Alright, maybe I said some things, which you could have misinterpreted"

Tenten just shook her head, that guy was just hopeless. She almost felt like laughing.

"Ok, Tenten I'm sorry alright. I didn't mean it and I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings"

The air got knocked out of her, did** the** Neji Hyuga just apologize to her. Well, that was something new for sure. Deep inside, Tenten of course already knew that he didn't mean it, but there was still something bugging her

"Fine I'll forgive you, if you have to answer one question. Why the hell did you even care if I went out with this guy?"

Neji was at loss for a second. That was something he wasn't too sure about himself.

"I just knew the guy and I didn't like him. I think you deserve someone better"

Tenten wasn't satisfied with the answer but decided to leave it for the moment. The guy had been disgusting and idiotic, so Neji wasn't lying.

"So Tenten, you want to grab something to eat? I'll pay. You know as an apology" without waiting for her reply Neji was on his way.

Grinning Tenten followed him, he may didn't realize it but this was probably the closest to a date she'll ever had with him.

…

The woman was confusing him; Gaara examined the form of Hanabi Hyuga in front of him. Quite frankly Gaara hated being confused. He found his thoughts drifting to her more often than he was comfortable with. And he had to think about her at the weirdest moments and in the weirdest situations.

Only last week he had been walking through the market, when he suddenly saw these beautiful pearl earrings, silver just like her eyes.

And he had bought them!

**For her! **

He might have just gone insane, just because they reminded him of her eyes he had bought them. The Kazekage was fascinated by her eyes; they were like the moon, calming and deep, mysterious. He had always liked the moon, illuminating the dark night, when everything was trapped in darkness and shadow, the light of the moon never wavered and shone down unafraid. Given she had nice eyes, that didn't justify him buying jewelry for her.

Hanabi - firework …

Gaara found that the name fitted her perfectly. She sure had mixed things up here; she was resolute and spoke her mind, never offending, well not that often at least but sharply thinking and direct. He liked that too.

Her name fitted her. In a firework you never knew what color and what sparks were hidden within it; it was the same with Hanabi. He never knew what she was going to do next, but she always left him stunned.

So, ok he liked two things about her…

Maybe three, because another thing he noticed about Hanabi, was that she smelled like chocolate. No kidding, she smelled like delicate, sweet chocolate. Well, not exactly like chocolate but it was the closest flavor to it. Must be because she was eating it a lot, he mused, or because she was baking so much. Mostly cookies and then she would bring him some and they would talk about the newest contracts and developments.

Alright, the cookie thing might be something else he liked about Hanabi.

So four things, but that was it.

…

Five!

Five but that was it.

Five things, because even with being Kazekage and all, he was still a guy and Hanabi was an attractive woman, he couldn't deny that. She was beautiful even if she was very subtle about it, never showing too much of herself. Made you wonder what was hidden underneath…

Ok, this line of thoughts was leading him to no good. He was having a meeting here, and he hadn't even started to think about how she made his sand have a mind of its own.

Five things and that was it, still not enough to buy her earrings. There was only one logical explanation - sleep deprivation.

Once again he hadn't been able to sleep last night and that made almost a week now. The constant pain in his head was getting worse. Given, his headache never truly left him, but since he didn't sleep in so long the pain would worsen until he could barely see. Every gleam of light felt like knife plugged into his eyes. He really needed to sleep or a deep mediation but he didn't find the time or the concentration.

Gaara knew that in a few hours the pain was starting to become unbearable and his eyes would be oversensitive but like all the other times before he would swallow the pain and ignore it as good as possible. At least this agony was something that would distract him from the woman sitting opposed to him.

…

Something was off with the Kazekage today, since this morning he seemed strangely vacant. Currently they had a meeting with some representatives of a nearby village, it was almost noon already and the only reason the temperature was tolerable was thanks to the special insulation.

Hanabi hoped it would be over soon, not because of the heat, but mostly because of two factors. She didn't like how Gaara looked like he was in pain and also, she did not like those two representatives, not at all. They had no respect for her; she could tell it was because she was a woman. They only had brought one copy of the contract which was lying in front of Gaara on his desk. The light was getting brighter in the room and Hanabi could see the pain in Gaara's eyes. That's when it hit her, he was having a headache. It happened a lot as far as she had noticed, too often for her liking. She would really like to ease the pain, but …

There were some factors that could turn out to be complicated:

One: The Kazekage did not like physical contact, so the possibility of him agreeing was very slim

Two: His sand armor - the way she understood it, the armor was surrounding him like a second skin and never left.

But still…maybe it was worth a shot. She was a diplomat, chances were he wouldn't try to kill her right away.

Hanabi tugged at her hair nervously, twisting it around her finger. The wish to help him became overpowering. Before she could change her mind, Hanabi stood up and made her way around the table standing next to the Kazekage. Pretending to read over the contract in front of him, she was suddenly grateful they only brought one copy.

Her sleeves were long and got more broadly at the end, because of this and the way she was standing, the two negotiating partners couldn't see her hand. Hanabi was glad she had her long hair, so she leaned in closer and let her hair fall down like a curtain hiding her face, something she had picked up by watching Hinata.

Secretly she activated her Byakugan; it took only seconds to see how she could relief him from his pain. Carefully she let her hand wander up to his neck, making sure the two guys didn't see it. She felt the Kazekage tense up but his sand didn't crush her hand so she kept going. Hanabi let her hand wander up his neck, spreading her fingers in the process; slowly she put pressure on it and let a bit of chakra flow inside to lessen the stiffness of his muscle. Then she let her finger draw small circles behind his ears.

Gaara had a lot more tension in his body than this and just by massaging it like this a little would only lessen the pain but she needed more time and less audience to make his headache disappear completely. As Hanabi had suspected since long ago, she had also seen his back was aching from the gourd and the sitting around but she couldn't change that right now.

Gaara on the other didn't dare to move a muscle. He didn't understand what had happened and how he ended up in this position. When Hanabi first left her place to stand by him, he had assumed it was because of the contract. Considering his current position, he wasn't so sure anymore. As usual the second she was close enough his secure sand armor had retreated, leaving his skin bare. But that wasn't the shocking thing.

She was** touching him! **

Gaara wasn't used to this and didn't know how to react. His human contact had increased greatly since his first meeting with Naruto, but still the only people whose touches he allowed were his siblings and even then he had to will his sand away.

Shocked at the contact his first reaction was to summon his sand to stop her and take her hand away. Only his sand ignored him. It was like it had a mind on its own, like it wanted her skin to touch his. But that would be just crazy…Why would she even what to touch him?

Despite his confusion he felt his frozen body slowly relax under her touch, it was as if he didn't even have a say in it. It took him another few seconds to realize what she was doing, but when he felt the throbbing pain in his head fade out, the scales fell from his eyes.

Hanabi must have seen his pain and decided to help him…But why? And how did she know?

Gaara was sure that his face hadn't given him away. He was dealing with this for years so he should know but how did she know about his pain?

He suppressed a groan when another mild sting washed over him and disappeared leaving the pain to lessened more. It didn't leave his body completely, it never did. But it was even more in the back seat of his consciousness than after a day of sleep. When he felt her fingers leaving his skull he almost protested but quickly crushed the noise before it could leave his mouth. The moment she returned to her chair, his sand was back in place. She gave him a small soft smile which he answered with a nod in appreciation.

He needed to meditate very badly.

…

"Hi Sakura-chan, were you just talking to Baa-chan?" on his way to the Hokage building Naruto had ran into his former teammate. After he had heard the shocking news that Hinata was about the travel to Kiri and Kumo and wouldn't be back for months, he had decided that this separation was too long. Therefore he would ask Tsunade to let him travel alongside her. He'd just make something up about it being good for him because of diplomatic skills and all that.

Since Sakura was in a good mood today she decided to let the Baa-chan slip she just smiled. Besides she needed to tell him the news

"I have exiting news. Maybe Hinata already told you but whatever… I will participate in the Skills-Exchange program between Suna and Konoha. I'll leave by the end of the month, first it will take six months but I…"

For Naruto the rest sounded like a big blur, only one thing stuck in his mind and it repeated itself over and over again. Sakura was going to leave Konoha. She was going to leave him behind like Sasuke did, just like Sai left for Kumo she was going to leave him too. His old team had been torn apart and Sakura and Kakashi were all that remained, and now Sakura was leaving too.

"I don't understand, Sakura-chan. Why do you want to leave Konoha?" he interrupted her rant.

Uncertain she looked at him, Sakura didn't want to tell him, because the promise he made to her back then still depressed him and knowing she was leaving because she needed to clear her head from Sasuke…

"Ah, you know I'm just up for a challenge and when Hinata offered me the opportunity I thought…"

Naruto's mind couldn't process it. HINATA had offered Sakura to leave Konoha. He had always thought Hinata didn't want to hurt him and now she was sending his last remaining teammate away. Did she know what she was doing to him? He turned around and left Sakura looking at his back confused.

…

Hinata shrieked up when the blond slammed her door open. "Naru…"

"What the hell did you do?" he was furious. She had rarely seen him that mad and never at her. "How could you do that to me? You know exactly how important Sakura is to me, yet you just decide to send her to Suna. What gives you the right to decided that?"

She raised her hand in an assuaging gesture and tried to talk "Naruto I understand…"

"You **understand**? The hell you understand, I really thought you did but now…You don't know anything! I thought you were different from everyone, but obviously you just want to see me miserable as well. You have no idea what it feels like to be left alone by everyone. You and your perfect Hyuga life, you have no idea how it feels like to grow up with no one. And I really thought I could trust you, but I'll never make that mistake ever again. You are just like everyone else. So do you like making me miserable, huh? I'll never forgive you for this Hinata" he stormed out still raging.

Hinata brought her hands to her mouth, silencing the sobs but it didn't stop the tears from falling. She could barely breathe and felt herself falling apart. She had suspected a harsh reaction but hearing him saw those things to her, feeling his desperation and rage that she had caused. And worst of all seeing the look in his eyes, the hurt and betrayal, it was crushing her heart. Her body was shaking heavily and she sank down, missing her chair and falling to the floor. She sucked the air in and out hard, trying to stop her body from violently trembling. But nothing was going to work, she had lost him. He hated her but without him…

Hinata **needed** him in her life.

…

_Hinata knew she was on a good way, being the Hyuga ambassador for more than a year, she could tell she was getting somewhere. It wasn't easy but Hinata had made up her mind, since the day her father offered her the position. She was going to unite the family, no more main branch/ side branch crap. _

_She was going to change it, no matter how long it took. At first she wasn't able to do anything, knowing the elders wouldn't take her serious much less accept her opinion or discuss it with her. They thought of her as pathetic and weak, a disgrace to their clan. _

_Before she was able to even attempt to talk to them about the matter of sealing, she needed to prove herself, gaining their respect because up until now she still was the Hyuga failure, the fallen Heiress, not worth their time or training. She needed to make herself important to the clan, someone they took pride in. _

_When she thought about it like that it seemed impossible. She was no one after all, no one special and not good at anything. Hinata was very well aware how people looked at her how she herself looked at her, what they called her, but this time she wasn't going to back down. She wouldn't give up easily and if it took her forever then it would take her forever. _

_And half a year later even the most skeptics elder admitted that Hinata may not be a strong kunoichi but her diplomatic skills were beyond average. With her negotiations the Hyuga clan was gaining both money and influence. Thanks to Hinata they were able to establish links to more villages than ever. Contracts and connections to other clans that had seemed beyond repair were restored._

_What Hinata did in only a year seemed impossible and it was only thanks to her barely slept and was constantly reading about laws and clans laws and contracts, writing letters and working on her stutter. The most important persons for this were her sister, her cousin, her father and…well Naruto. _

_Hinata figured that if she could control herself around Naruto she could manage some elders. She worked on herself without a break and when she was certain that by now every stubborn elder was at least content with her work, she put her plan in action. _

_It was a slow process; she and Hanabi had to take one elder after another. By talking to them, convincing them to abolish the cursed seal, to every single one of them, they tried to make them agree. Since Hinata was busy with her official work she had left it to her sister to gather information about the elders. And Hanabi didn't disappoint, she found out everything about the clan council members. Likes, dislikes, what the read, what they ate, who they talked to, who they liked… she knew everything and Hinata relied on her._

_It was hard but after another year, she could feel herself getting closer. They kept it from Neji, because she didn't want to get his hopes up in case she failed. The remove of the cursed seal was getting closer but it was still a long way to go. _

_Outsiders often thought the seal couldn't be removed - a bunch of nonsense but the main family kept the way to do it a well hidden secret. _

_Hinata was determined to remove it no matter what, even if she had to do it without the approval of the main branch. However that would most likely end in a conflict or worse a war and her family would break apart; Hinata didn't want to risk it unless there was no other way. _

_She was getting closer and most of the days Hinata was optimistic about it._

…_Today was not one of those days. _

_Having to deal with the harsh comments and disapproving looks of not only her own family but also most of the village population had left its scars. Her confidence was shaken easily and every now and then her insecurities got the better of her. _

_Today was one of these days. _

_Hinata sat down at the bench; it was a sunny day, that didn't fit her mood. She watched some children playing tag, they laughed happily and the Hyuga girl smiled sadly. _

"_Hi Hinata wat'cha doing?" a cheerful voice made her snap out of her thoughts. _

"_Hi Na-Naruto-kun" _

"_You don't look too happy today and you stuttered. You haven't done that in a while" he remarked flopping down next to her. _

_Hinata didn't say anything, looking back to the playing children. _

"_Hey what's going on? I leave for a mission and when I come back you're all sad" he was getting serious. _

_They had been close friends for more than two years and the closer they got the more Naruto wanted to make sure she was happy. But Hinata just shook her head "It's nothing" _

_The Uzumaki frowned, he might be dense but that was clearly not true "Come on Hinata, don't lie to me. Please, I want to help you, dattebayo" _

_Hinata couldn't help but smile at his pleading look. Seeing her smile Naruto smiled back proudly, at least he made her a little happy. With a sigh she told him how she felt like she reached a dead end and how she was just frustrated. The blond looked at her like she just lost her mind. _

"_What are you talking about Hinata? You accomplished more in not even a year than anyone has in hundreds of them. I'm proud of you, everyone is. Neji is going to burst from happiness. And Hinata if you ever feel down, just remember that when I become Hokage we will do it together. I promised I'll change the Hyuga clan and I intend to keep it. But I won't need to because you are fulfilling it for me, it's amazing. You are incredible at this, don't ever doubt yourself. And I'll help you, so whatever you need, I'll do it. That's a promise, dattebayo" _

_Hinata bit her lip and smiled a happier smile. Naruto somehow managed to build up her confidence whenever she needed it. He always made her smile and was able to pick her back up. _

"_You already have Naruto-kun. Thank you. I feel better now" _

"_He, he that is just how awesome I am" Naruto grinned his trademark grin "So wanna tell me what your plan is?"_

…

Hinata clenched her hand over her heart. It hurt so much, she felt like her soul got ripped out. She tried to breath, but it just increased the pain. She couldn't breathe.

Her body still hadn't calmed down completely even after Naruto was long gone; still trembling she sat back up, trying desperately to get her thoughts together. She needed a plan; maybe she could at least save something.

Knowing Naruto it was best to let him calm down first, give him some time to adjust to the situation. It was a good thing she was going to leave tomorrow, and then when she came back, they hopefully could talk it out and save some of their friendship and trust.

* * *

**Any comments, questions, remarks or critism is very welcomed.**

**Tell me what you think.  
**


	20. Chapter 17

**Since I was super happy about all the reviews and in a good mood, since Munich kicks ass, I decided to update early.**

**Thanks for all the reviews.**

**I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

**-17-**

Dating? Was he dating Tenten?

Neji didn't know, usually everything he did he had under control. But somehow the thing with Tenten had just gone out of hand. Since they made up, the two did spend a significant amount of time in each other's presence. Including dinner and lunch and sparing and the list when on and on.

But were they dating? Neji found the thought strangely appealing; a month ago he never even gave it a thought, but now after he had spent weeks with mostly her. He could see himself in a long lasting relationship with her.

Then again changing their current friendship into something more, would surely entail risks and he wasn't entirely sure he was willing to take that risk.

Today he and Tenten had been eating lunch at the training field after a little spar, when the newest couple in Konoha, Chouji and Ino had walked by. Looking back Neji couldn't explain how it happened, but they had conversed casually, until Ino thought it was a great idea to ask them if they were up for a double-date. Tenten almost choked on her water, Neji being the Hyuga he was, had the grace to gulp first before staring at the blonde open mouthed.

He guessed Ino had realized her mistake then because she and her boyfriend had taken off very fast after that.

And currently, a few hours later, sitting at his kitchen table, Neji still didn't have an answer, not about the double-date, even if Tenten and her were dating, doing something like that was out of the question. He was wondering, if the relationship between him and Tenten could be classified as "dating". It shouldn't be that hard, usually Neji knew exactly where he stood with a woman. He asked her out, they dated and up until now he had always ended the relationship after only mere months.

So he didn't deny that by now, he wouldn't mind dating his former teammate but he had no idea how she felt about it. And there was this friendship thing…and now he was going around in circles again.

Then there was the fact that their …dates or meetings or encounter, whatever they called it, had been strictly friendly apart from some…more than friendly tension between them. But then again maybe he had imagined that, despite not being very imaginative.

Just why did it have to be so complicated?

If Hinata was here he would ask her for advice but she left a week ago.

Wait a second, he was Neji Hyuga, and he did not need his little cousin to solve his problems. It was easy, he liked Tenten and the thought about them dating made a pleasant feeling settle in his stomach, so he was going to take things into his own hands. He had been able to apologize to her so asking her out would be a piece of cake!

…

"I want a mission Tsunade"

The Hokage looked stunned at the blond in front of her. Had Naruto just called her Tsunade? What happened to Baa-chan?

It confirmed her suspicion that something was off with Naruto. For two weeks he was unusual moody and it were never good moods. He was either mad or angry, and then he went to sad and depressed. It was almost scary.

Tsunade didn't know what happened, was it because Hinata had left? No, that couldn't be it. She had asked him to escort Hinata since it was good for his diplomatic experience, but he flat out refused. He didn't even give an explanation and seemed almost angry at even being asked. His reaction had surprised Tsunade greatly since she had thought he'd be overjoyed. Matter of factly she had been expecting him to demand to leave with her, but that obviously didn't happen.

Did they have a fight? Was that why Naruto was so unbalanced lately?

But a fight with HINATA that seemed unlikely. The fifth let out a sigh, because he was announced Hokage in less than a month Naruto technically wasn't allowed to do missions, save for diplomatic ones.

Then again maybe it would help him calm down "Yes, I give one to you"

…

The office was sticky and unusual hot for the middle of the night; Gaara stood up and stretched, releasing his back from some of the tension. He smiled to himself as he exited the room leaving his paperwork alone at the dust's mercy. A lot had changed since the day Hanabi had helped him ease his headache.

…

"_I hope I didn't offend you, Kazekage-sama, but I didn't think you would be able to follow the negotiations in your condition" Hanabi's voice was confident with only a hint of uncertainty shining through it. _

_Gaara's stare was incredibly intense, piercing her soul, his jade eyes searching her own pale ones, like they could find the reason why she did it in them._

"_Thank you" he finally said, leaving Hanabi speechless for a second. _

_Hesitating she raised her voice again "If…if you want …if you would allow me to continue I could make your headache vanish completely"_

_Normally Gaara would decline within seconds but something kept him from doing so. Her hands in his hairs and on his skin had felt extremely good, making his body ache for her touch again. His body screamed for contact with her skin after being deprived of human touch for so many years. _

_And her hands did magical things to his body, the pain lessened in a matter of minutes. Plus he wanted to make the pain stop for once. But his sand didn't protect him against her and Gaara had trouble trusting people. If he allowed her to touch his body he'd be at her mercy, the thought making him somewhat uneasy. _

_In the end Gaara had to surrender to the carvings of his body and after all long silence in which he had searched her face for any ill-indications "Fine"_

_The only proof for Hanabi's surprise was the quick irk of her eyebrow, she had been certain he would decline her. Did that mean he would let go of his sand armor?_

_Come to think of it, before when she touched his neck it didn't feel like sand. His skin wasn't smooth, it was rough and so was his hair wild, untamed and hard. It fitted him, Hanabi found it very manly, attractive even. _

_When her delicate hand touched his scalp putting gentle pressure on his temples, a sigh escaped his lips. Slowly her fingers worked over his head, on his forehead down to the bridge of his nose and back up again then down on the other side to his neck. The tension left his body, and he closed his eyes in bliss. _

_Hanabi smiled down at him softly, she had never seen him so at peace. His breathing became more steady and deeply. The woman let her fingers run freely, after a while she was sure the pain must have gone, but…she didn't want to stop, liking the feeling of his skin and his hair between her hands. _

_Only Hanabi was afraid Gaara might question the length of her massage, because she was certain his pain was gone and he'd become suspicious. She was surprised to find him sound asleep in his chair. Biting her lower lips she smiled, the mighty scary and powerful Kazekage looked so endearing snuggling in his chair. She leaned forward to tip his chair back, resisting the urge to plant a kiss on the kanji on his forehead._

_She took a quick step back. What the hell was she thinking? She must have gone crazy. Practically running, she fled his office, as fast as possible. _

…

Gaara still remembered the shock when he had awoken in his office. Realizing he must have fell asleep during her massage.

Never! NEVER had he ever slept in another person's presence, if at all he slept for only a few hours straight before waking up and if he got lucky he could still nod off for a few more minutes, but…

That day he had slept till five, that had been five hours, FIVE! It was hardly believable, and he didn't even feel uncomfortable about it. The next day Hanabi had offered him to come to her whenever he had a headache, even if it was just a small one.

Unfortunately the frequency of it had decreased drastically, Gaara frowned. He never expected to actually miss the pain someday. But he liked the massages she gave him; in fact he liked them very much, so much that he had to restrain himself from keeping her hand in place when she was done.

Reaching his destination he didn't even have time to raise his fist to knock on the wooden door, it flew open confronting Gaara with a lot of pleasuring things.

First there was the overwhelming scent of freshly made cookies, and then there was the warm air flowing around him and saving him from the freezing cold of a desert night; and most importantly of all however was the hostess herself.

Hanabi's simple white apron above deep brown khaki and a simple red shirt really shouldn't look anywhere close that beautiful as it did, her auburn hair put up in a messy bun with strands of hair peeking out and falling down. He could make out a little bit of flour on her shirt and hairs, making her look even cuter.

"You're just on time, the cookies are just out of the oven" she shoved him in happily.

It had become their ritual; sometimes they would abandon their paperwork and meet up in the middle of the night to eat homemade cookies and talk.

"Hey you wanna go out? Eat outside, like a picnic?" Hanabi hold out a basket and her big silver eyes locked onto his expectantly.

The Kazekage couldn't deny he was surprised "Are you sure? It is freezing outside I don't want you to catch a cold"

She grinned at him telling him he didn't need to worry; she would use the onion-method. Meaning she would dress herself in different layers of clothing to keep the warm in. Uncertainly he finally agreed, still convinced her delicate form was not suited for the cold. Together they made their way through the busy streets of Suna, until they reached a quiet place a little out of town.

Hanabi took out the blanket putting it on the ground, and together they sat down. In blissful silence they ate the cookies as gracefully as possible.

"I love the night time" Hanabi looked up, tonight's sky was set alight with a waxing moon accompanied loads of stars glittering down on them "The night sky is so clear here in the desert. It's the most beautiful one I've ever seen. At night everything is quiet and tranquil, you can just forget all your problems. What about you, Kazekage-sama?"

"I like the moon" he stated simply. That she was constantly calling him Kazekage somehow annoyed him quite a bit…much.

"I wish I could see the clear sky from the pool, you know. The ceiling is made from glass and you could sit in the warm water…" she sighed dreamingly. "But…the water would be cold in the night, so…" she shrugged.

Interested she turned to him "What would you like, Kazekage-sama?"

"I'd like you to call me Gaara" his sea green eyes fixating her silver ones.

Hanabi felt her breath getting caught, her heartbeat increasing and worst of all she felt blood rising to her cheeks.

Swiftly she looked up again into the night sky "I'm Hanabi, then"

They fell back to staring at the moon in silence. See green eyes glancing at her out of the corner of his eyes, which was why he immediately noticed her slight shiver.

"You're cold" he remarked.

As an answer he got a vigorous shook of her head "No, I don't wanna go yet. The only thing waiting there is paperwork and I'm positive it will wait for me a little longer….Oh, but if you have to go back…"

Hanabi forced the last part out, not wanting him to leave her side, intentionally not finishing her sentence.

A small smile showing on his face, he stayed silent. Taking off his jacket and putting it around her small frame.

"Thank you, Gaara" she whispered.

Gaara froze for the fraction of a second when his name fell from her lips so casually, naturally even.

With a nod he sat back down. The wind had picked up its pace, swirling up sand around them.

The Hyuga woman tilted her head when she saw Gaara blinking heavily "Is everything alright?"

Crimson hair shook slightly "No - it's just ironic…I got sand in my eye" he had deadpanned. His dry tone was causing Hanabi to laugh out laugh.

The way he had said it and how innocent and surprised he had looked…she rolled on the sand, tearing up from laughter and it only got worse at his confused expression. She tried to catch her breath whiles snoring out from laughing

"Did you…even realize…how…funny that was?"

Gaara felt a little lost because he was not too sure whether that was that a good thing or a bad what he knew, making a woman laugh was good but making her laugh AT you…not so good.

When Hanabi had regained her composure she leaned in to take a look on his eyes, that was starting to get red "Let me take a look"

Good, definitely good, a very good thing

The Kazekage smelled her nice chocolate aroma, if he leaned in just a little closer…

Softly her small hand brushed over his eyelid, moving the grain of sand carefully.

"There we have the culprit" on her finger she had a tiny grain of sand; cautiously he took it off her finger, regarding it curiously. The one strain of sand that was brave enough to slip his control.

…

Tenten could hardly believe her luck; THE Neji Hyuga had just asked her out, as in asked her out on a **real date**. And in about three hours he would pick her up, for their first official date. That meant she had to find another girl to help her look less…tomboyish.

Meanwhile two redheads and a loud blond were discussing if a triple date was even a thing or not. Ino had met Karui when the red haired woman picked out flowers for her garden and they had spontaneously decided to go for lunch together. And when they had bumped into Karin on their way, the trio had been perfect. It was safe to assume their conversation could be heard in most parts of Konoha, for none of them was known to be especially shy.

The air got knocked out of Ino when Tenten charged at her and crushed her in a hug "Thank you, thank you and thank you"

Ino stumbled a few steps back, laughing helplessly without a clue what the brown haired girl was referring to "No biggie… By the way, what did I do?"

Tenten grinned "Remember when you asked for a double date? Thanks to you Neji asked me out!"

"WHAT?!" that was Karui.

"We fix them up and INO gets all the credit? How's that fair?" Karin complained.

"What did you just say?" Tenten whirled around, eyes narrowed.

"Oh, - did I say that out loud?" the redhead laughed nervously and took a step back seeing the murderous look in Tenten's chocolate eyes.

"What do you mean fixed us up?"

"We should run" Karui whispered.

"You can run, but I'll still tell Neji you did something and he **will** find out what it was unless…" Tenten tapped her chin, seeing as they had stopped dead in their tracks. The only one not having the slightest idea of what was going on was Ino "You tell me and… I need your help getting ready for tonight"

"Hey, whoa I want to know what is going on and if someone helps anyone looking amazing it's me. I'll go fetch Sakura and then we talk. It's a shame Hinata isn't here, bet she would love to this. On second thought I'll also get Temari" Ino took Tenten's hand and off there were, followed by two red heads.

…

"You don't look alright" Shino was surprisingly persisting, must be the influence of Shiho, his girlfriend.

Hinata sighed "Shino-kun I am fine, really"

Behind his glasses Shino had a look of disbelief in his eyes.

"Leave her alone, Shino. She'll talk if she's ready" balancing a tablet in her hand, his bespectacled, blonde girlfriend entered the room.

Hinata shot her a grateful look. She knew exactly how she looked, since her fight with Naruto she had barely slept and cried every second she was alone.

Shiho smiled gently at her, handing her a cup of tea "Is it really secure for you to travel all the way with only one other ninja?"

The ghost of a smile played on her lips; she had had the same argument with Tsunade.

"Yes, it is. A large group will only draw attention however the two of us will just go unnoticed, slip past, you know. Besides I might not be an active kunoichi anymore, but I still remember how to defend myself. I'm still in training after all"

The trip had turned out to be more exhausting than Hinata anticipated; it was most likely the lack of sleep that was getting to her. But travel all the way was worth it, ever since Shino and Shiho resided in Kiri the connection had increased greatly. Shiho and Shino had declared themselves to take in the doctor coming from Konoha to participate in the "Skills-exchange-program" and helping him out in the beginning.

Tomorrow she would already be on her way to Sai. Kumogakure was the last stop, that being one of the reasons Tsunade was so nervous about Hinata traveling with only one guard, who was also a Hyuga.

The history of the Hyuga clan and the village in the land of lightning was well known. But Hinata had deep trust to the new diplomatic bounds. She was looking forward to meet Sai and Bee again.

Hinata liked Sai, he was a little hard to get used to but he was a nice guy. Plus he was doing great in Kumo. Everyone was a little worried before but thanks to Killer Bee the ex-Root member was doing very well. The two of them had become something like friends, which was pretty astonishing. Hinata smiled a small smile. Killer Bee was also someone who she looked forward to see again. Naruto had introduced them after the war had ended and since then she had met him a handful times. It was always fun when he was around, though she had to admit she wasn't the biggest fan of his rapping, but it was what made him who he was.

He and Naruto had become good friends. …

"Hinata if there is something you want to talk about…?" Shiho leaned over worried.

"No, I am fine. Really! I just didn't sleep so well" it was true ever since her fight with Naruto, Hinata had barely slept. She was just leaving out parts of the truth.

Neither part of the couple looked convinced but they let her be.

Her face hurt from all the fake smiles and the forced happiness. When the door to her room closed she felt all the lies drop from her face, leaving her broken expression behind. The more time she spend without Naruto, the more she noticed just how much she loved him and how badly she needed him in her life.

Whenever she had threatened to fall apart, he had picked up her pieces and made her better than before. The only reason she was where she was now, was because of him. But he hated her now and she had no one to blame but herself. Again she wasn't able to keep pain from him; she would never be able to.

Hinata didn't cry, she just couldn't anymore, she felt like there were no more tears left. Those last weeks, almost two months, she had cried so much that he felt drained out, dried up. She had known what Sakura meant to Naruto, yet she decided to meddle and mess things up. Why couldn't she just let it be?

Had she been wrong? Hinata had assumed Naruto was over Sakura, but maybe…? Hinata herself had pretended to be over Naruto; maybe he had done the same thing?

No, Hinata knew Naruto well enough, he wasn't good at lying and definitely not good at pretending to be someone he was not. But still…she was the cause of his misery and now he would never talk to her again.

…Looked like she was wrong again, there were still some tears left.

* * *

**Thanks for reading. **

**All comments, critism, notes and remarks are greatly appreciated.**

**Tell me what you think.  
**


	21. Chapter 18

**Thank you very much for reviewing and reading.**

**I don't own Naruto.  
**

* * *

**-18-**

It hurt so bad, he couldn't breathe. His lungs felt like they were supporting a rock and the raw feeling of pain behind his eyes and in his heart was slowly becoming worse instead of better, as he had initially hoped. At first the overwhelming anger had eaten up all his pain, numbing his feelings to the point he could barely feel physical pain. Never in his life had he experience an anger that lasted that long, it wasn't the most intense anger that he had ever felt, but the longest lasting. After the anger had decreased the feeling of betrayal had taken over. It was like back when Sasuke had left him, maybe even worse because this time it felt more personal. Sasuke hadn't left him alone in particular just the village, and he and Hinata were way closer. She knew him better, she should have…

Naruto punched the tree one more time, breaking the stem in the process. His knuckles were bleeding from the abuse they had been through the last hours, it had taken that long to break a tree without using any chakra. Actually that was a lie, it had taken that long to break three trees.

Hinata would be back in the village soon. She'd probably be back around the same time he was going to come back.

But he didn't care! He really didn't.

In fact he shouldn't even be thinking about Hinata.

When Naruto had been a child, he used to just fake his happiness until it became real. He would put a smile on his face and then he would just act goofy and like he didn't have a care in the world.

But this time he couldn't force his lips upward with all his might.

And Hinata just wouldn't leave his mind!

This was all her fault to start with; she had no right to send his last remaining teammate away to Suna. Hinata didn't understand him at all; she didn't care about his feelings in the least.

'**Oh, really is that so?' **Naruto groaned, _**now**_ the stupid fox wanted to talk?

'What do you want?'

'**I've had enough of your self-pity, you pathetic fool.'**

'What is this supposed to mean?'

**The fox laughed 'You are an idiot. You just lost the only person who ever understood you no matter how idiotic you behaved'**

Naruto's mood dropped further, 'What are you talking about?'

**The Bijuu growled in annoyance 'The Hyuga girl. You really fucked that up.'**

Naruto's fist clenched 'It's none of your concern'

'**It is when it's affecting your chakra and therefore me. When we merge chakras your stupid content became my concern. I should have known better, but the situation demanded it. And currently your body and chakra system is a mess and I'm at the receiving end of it, so get a grip and make up with the girl**

Naruto laughed dryly 'You just like her because she calls you Kurama-sama and that flatters your damn ego'

'**Naruto, who are you kidding? You were never happier than around her and believe it or not it shows in your chakra. The girl put you to peace and your rough charka flow was steady and peaceful. I spent all my life in misery and when we merged it changed. And then when you got closer to Hinata I could feel it, your happiness affected me and I'll be damned if I go back to be my miserable self because of your stupidity. Since your fight with that girl I have to put up with all of your shit, pity, sadness, anger, disappointment, pain, all flooding right through your chakra and then right through me. So I'm telling you to stop being an idiot and apologize'**

'Apologize?' he sputtered out 'I have no reason to apologize, she was the one…'

'**The one who what? Always believed in you? Loved you? Was there for you no matter just how stupid you were?'**

Naruto clenched his teeth 'She's sending away Sakura'

'**So what? Over the last few years the two of you barely spent time together. I get your former teammate is important to you, but seriously she was busy with her life and you were busy with yours. The one thing that is keeping you and her together is Sasuke. And you didn't even ask why Hinata would offer Sakura to leave Konoha. Hinata has never done anything to harm you, why would she do it now? Did you consider for one moment that Hinata was thinking about what Sakura wants, maybe she wanted to leave?'**

Naruto blinked a few times, facing the tree again instead of Kurama. What did he mean? Since when did the stupid kitsune care so much about his life?

But Naruto had also to admit that Kurama was right; Hinata had never hurt him in any way. She had always been supportive and caring; he just was too blind to see it at first. Hinata wouldn't hurt him intentionally. He really should have asked her why she decided to propose the position to Sakura.

For weeks he had been fighting the guilt, drowning out its loud voice with anger and agony and the feeling of betrayal, but no matter how hard he had tried, deep inside of him, Naruto had always known that their fight wasn't entirely Hinata's fault.

He groaned he had made a terrible mistake. Only now Naruto realized how he treated Hinata. He had** screamed** at her! And those things he said to her. The blonde sank down and buried his face in his hands, how could he do that? None of it was true and he knew it. Kurama was right; he had fucked it up badly.

What if Hinata wouldn't forgive him? He didn't even give her a chance to explain. And the look on her face, when he yelled all those lies at her. Did he scare her? Oh no - no no, she had been afraid of him.

Did he ruin their friendship?

He needed to apologize, beg on his knees for her to forgive him. He couldn't let her go out of his life. He LOVED her, **needed **her. Naruto had to make it up somehow.

What if she was still mad? His insides felt like they were on fire, the pain almost unbearable. He couldn't lose her, even if she didn't love him anymore, but her friendship was too important to him. How could he have been so stupid?

…

_With his eyes closed Naruto turned his face toward the sun. He had just come back from another unsuccessful search for Sasuke. Soon it was going to be three years since the war and things were going good in the village, except that Sasuke was still missing, without a trace. Every hint and every rumor about his Uchia teammate had turned out to be false and misleading. It had to be the damn snake._

"_Hello Naruto. You back?" _

"_Huh? Oh, hi Sakura-chan, Yes, just a few hour ago" _

"_Have you heard? Lee and Karin are dating! Isn't it great?" her green eyes shone with excitement but there was something else hiding in them. The question she didn't dare to ask._

_Naruto didn't want to talk about his new failure, so he chose to ignore it "Yes, they already told me. I'm happy for them" _

_After that was said there was a heavy silence between them. _

"_I'm not giving up, Sakura-chan. I will get Sasuke back!" Naruto finally told her. _

"_Naruto, please stop doing this to herself. I told you to forget the stupid promise you gave me. I don't care anymore, but I don't want you to get hurt because…" _

"_Sakura-chan, don't lie and I told you it's not about the promise. I want to get him back, whether I gave you the promise or not has nothing to do with it" _

_Sakura sighed knowing she could not reach him when he was stubborn like that. "Fine, I need to get to the hospital, my shift's about to start. But please cheer up, Naruto!"_

_He gave her a half-hearted nod. Aimlessly he walked around the village before he decided on Ichiraku's for dinner. _

"_Ah, Naruto-san, how are you?" Naruto looked up to find the head of the Hyuga clan, Hiashi Hyuga, himself standing in front of him with what one could call a smile on his face, regarding the facial expressions a Hyuga was likely to make._

"_I'm fine, Hiashi-san. And how are you?" _

"_I'm doing very well, thank you for asking. And where are you off to, Naruto-san?" Hiashi asked._

_Naruto put his arm behind his head and grinned "I was going to Ichiraku's…Oh, if you want to join me…?" at times like this he was glad to remember his good manners._

_Hinata's father smiled a little bit more. "Oh, I'm afraid I'll have to decline. My daughters are cooking and they would be disappointed if I didn't show up" _

_After learning that his daughter had feelings for the loud blond and with all Naruto had done not only for the village but especially for his clan, Hiashi had changed his opinion about the blond fundamentally. Naruto's energy and loudmouth was not something Hiashi was used to, but he had decided to give the young man a chance and he had turned out to be a very polite young man, not to mention a great shinobi._

"_Naruto-san if you haven't eaten yet then I would like to invite you over to our house" _

_Naruto stared at the man in complete awe "YES! I mean…I would like that" _

_Naruto walked next to Hiashi as they made light small talk. It was funny how different Hiashi was from how he was before. He was one of the few and one of the first people who had actually apologized to him for his behavior in the past. _

_Apologized!_

_It was unbelievable knowing how proud the Hyuga clan was but obviously it didn't mean he wasn't an honest man who had started to believe in making things right._

…

"_Hinata? Hanabi? I hope you don't mind it, but I brought a guest" Hiashi entered the kitchen. _

_Without turning around Hinata answered "No problem at all, father. We are done in a minute, so you can sit down" _

_Hanabi added "Can you please tell Neji dinner's ready?" _

_She grinned at Naruto as she passed past him to the dining room, leaving Hinata and Naruto alone in the kitchen. The woman still oblivious that the guest her father brought was her long time crush. _

"_Hi Hinata what's for dinner?" _

_For a second Hinata froze before taking a deep calming breath "Naruto! It's so nice to have you over for dinner. You can follow Hanabi and take a seat in the dining room" _

_The blond pouted, he didn't like it when Hinata got all formal around him "Oh come on Hinata, let me help. You taught me how to cook or don't you have trust in your skills?" _

_Laughing she turned around and shoved the bowl of soup in his hands "Naruto would you be so kind and bring this to the dining room and then take a seat there. Dinner will be done in a minute and you are our guest!" _

_Pretending to still be sulking he took it from here, not fully able to contain the smile on his face. The bad mood from before completely lifted, he wondered how she did that._

_Sitting in the living room after dinner, they were talking and chatting the night away. It felt good to be a part of them so naturally. _

_When he had been younger Naruto would never have guessed the Hyuga family to be so…uncomplicated and loving, which was most likely because the Hyuga family had been nothing like that back then According to Hinata it was because of Naruto's talk to Neji during the Chunin exams that her family started to change._

_According to her it was only thanks to him that her family was whole again. _

_According to her he saved her family. _

_According to her…_

_Naruto shook his head, which got him a questioning look from Hinata. It was getting very late and Hanabi was the first one to give in and yawned. _

"_You know what daddy. It´s late and I´m tired. I think we all know what that means: I´m gonna sleep here!" the younger one stated matter of factly. "What about you Hina?" _

_The woman in question shot a quick glance at the tall blond sitting next to her. He answered her silent question with a pleading look. "No thanks. I prefer to go home tonight" _

_Hiashi turned to Naruto. "I trust you will ensure my daughter safety on her way home?" _

_Naruto grinned at him "Believe it"_

…

_After spending half of the way in comfortable silence Hinata finally turned her head to look at Naruto. "So - you wanna talk about it?" _

_He shrugged with a deep sigh "I´m not sure, it's nothing really. Just…" _

"_Sasuke?" _

_Wide eyed he turned to her, how did she know?_

_Hinata shrugged "It's the look in your eyes. You only get that when you think about him" _

_He smiled weakly, of course she'd see it, but it still didn't cease to astonish him every time. _

"_You want to come in?" the question was simple not pleading; it was her way of giving him the choice. Did he want to talk about it or not?_

"_Yes, I would really like that"_

…

"_Was it a mistake, Hinata?" he sat on the couch, gripping his cup of tea "The promise…was it a mistake?" _

_Hinata sighed and sat down next to him "That is a difficult question to answer, Naruto" _

"_Just tell me what YOU think" Naruto said quietly._

"_I…I think …" Hinata sighed again; she just needed to tell him, even if he wasn't going to like it "…Yes, Naruto I think it was a mistake. But not because of the reasons you think" she hurried to explain "It's just that it wasn't your promise to keep to start with"_

"_What do you mean? Of course it was my promise" he interrupted confused. _

_Hinata smiled at him "Naruto look, there is no doubt in my mind that you could drag Sasuke's body back to Konoha but…that isn't what you want, right? You want Sasuke to come back to how he was before, to become his old self again, but that isn't a choice YOU can make"_

_Naruto rubbed his temples furiously; he didn't quite understand what Hinata wanted to tell him. Sure he wanted the old Sasuke back, not the crazy maniac he had become. That should be obvious._

_Undeterred the pale eyed woman continued "In the end we need to choose who we are for ourselves, no one else can make our decisions for us"_

"_But I'm not trying to make his decision for him I'm trying to make him come to his senses" Naruto protested._

"_I know but you see, while you had to stand up for yourself all your life and make you own decisions. That wasn't the case for Sasuke. You don't know what it feels like NOT being able to make decisions for yourself" she reasoned back._

"_Yeah, that was because no one gave a fuck what I was doing" he stated heated._

_Hinata bit her lip, she hadn't meant for it to come out that way._

"_I didn't mean to hurt you" she added softly "but Naruto, while you understand a lot of things concerning Sasuke there are also things you can't understand"_

_Naruto's eyes blasted with fury "Don't give me that Hinata. I understand perfectly well what it means like to lose someone close to me and they may not have been my family, I still…" he stopped when he saw the desperation in Hinata's eyes._

"_I know" her voice sounded raspy like she was suppressing tears " I know you understand what it feels like to lose someone but that is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about choices, Naruto. Unlike you Sasuke was never able to choose for himself, you may not see it and he definitely does not see it but he was manipulated all of his life"_

"_I don't know what the hell you are talking about" Naruto was starting to get angry._

_Hinata weighted her next words carefully "Look I was born into the Hyuga Clan and judging from the similarities between our clans in prospect of power hunger, I have a pretty good guess what Sasuke's childhood was like"_

_The blond felt silent, still not understanding where this was going and what it had to do with all the look in Hinata's eyes had turned sad and somewhat pained. _

"_Remember your fight with Neji, when he told you about destiny. He believed it, because it was what we were taught, what we all were taught. When you're born into a clan especially one with a kekkai genkai, you are not as free as everyone else and…"_

"_Hinata…" _

"_It's fine but you see in a clan you have certain expectations to fulfill, there are constantly people around you, putting you under pressure and expecting you to be how they want you to be. It doesn't matter who you are or what you want to be, no one cares about your dreams and hopes; it's all about the clan and what's best for it. And then you grow up, believing the clan is the most important thing in the world and their rules are to be respected above anything else. You constantly hear how you're supposed to be and at some point you start to believe it"_

_His hands had curled into fist when he could almost see her retreating more and more in the shell she used to live in. Her hair was hiding her face and she looked down at her teacup. Starting to grasp a small part of how the weight on her shoulder always dragged her down more until there was nothing left of her self-esteem, Naruto felt a familiar feeling of dread run through him. He was glad that the Hyuga family had changed so much during the last years. He continued to listen to her._

"_And in Sasuke's case, well his world pretty much came crashing down on him, when his own brother killed his family, his clan and at the same time he also destroyed everything Sasuke was taught to believe in. He must have felt so lost…"_

_Naruto reached out for Hinata's small hand as it started to shake lightly._

"_And after being taught that the clan stands above all other, he was left all alone with nothing – nothing left he could trust. So he did the only logical thing, he opted for revenge. It's also a part of what you're taught, someone hurts your clan…you hurt them. And Itachi was the one thing that was there to hate and to blame"_

_His intense blue eyes captured her white ones, with the lavender shine to them "I understand that he hated Itachi, but we could have done it together. He could have stayed here and our team- we would have been there for him"_

_A faint smile tugged at her red lips "Unfortunately that is not what the clan teaches you, Naruto. After Sasuke got manipulated by the Uchia clan he got manipulated again by his own brother. From what you told me, I understand that Itachi didn't mean to, but what he did made Sasuke who he is today. Itachi manipulated him into doing what HE thought was best for his little brother, but it backfired. No matter how you look at it, Itachi killed his family; no one forced him to do it"_

_Naruto shook his head violently "Itachi wanted to save Konoha. He did what he assumed he had to do"_

_Her eyes hardened for a second "Really? Because I refuse to believe he didn't have a choice, he might felt like it, but there is always another way. There just has to be. Trust me I'm a diplomat, whatever was going on there. Killing each and every Uchia, no matter how old or how involved in this political riot they were, was not the only answer. Or do you honestly think this massacre made anything better?"_

"_Well, I don't know, I mean Itachi said…" he hesitated. _

_Did he really thing there was any reason to justify Itachi's actions? When you became a ninja you were taught to follow orders, but Naruto was never one to follow the book. _

_Remembering Haku and Zabuza, he finally shook his head "No it probably wasn't the right thing to do"_

_Hinata nodded "Itachi made the choice and did what he was told and decided to make Sasuke stronger by manipulating him into believing he had to hate in order to become powerful. And Sasuke did exactly what he was supposed to, he got driven by his hatred and this is what drove him to Orochimaru. There he got manipulated again and after Sasuke killed his own brother, a task given to him by Itachi himself and found out the truth, he was lost again. Because again all his beliefs and everything that he assumed to be true crumbled"_

_Taking his head between his hands Naruto nodded slowly, he had never considered how much Sasuke's clan heritage influenced him all his life. Hinata was right he couldn't understand, but the Hyuga clan had given him a faint idea of all the pressure that was put on every member shoulders. Only to be recognized by her father Hinata had almost lost all her confidence. _

"_So then Tobi took his chance and he also manipulated him" he groaned started to understand the pattern in Sasuke's life._

"_Yes Sasuke got manipulated into doing something he didn't chose for himself and was abused as a tool for someone else's beliefs" the dark haired woman agreed "Sasuke didn't make the decision to hate Konoha all by himself, because he can't. He doesn't know how to make decisions for himself. How can he, when he doesn't know who he is aside from an Uchia"_

"_He only thinks of himself as the last Uchia and the only one to avenge his family. And he is so consumed by hatred that he needs someone to reflect it all upon" Naruto concluded thoughtfully._

"_Yes I think that too. Sasuke hates himself and this hatred - it projects on something else because we can't go around with so much hate inside of us. He needs someone else he can let this hate out on"_

"_Yeah me" Naruto muttered darkly._

"_So, yes your promise was a mistake, because it's not up to you to choose for him. You're not like them; you're not like all these people who manipulated him - yet you try to do the same. You want him to believe your way is the right one, but maybe it's not for Sasuke"_

"_But he can't go on living inside the darkness and if he lost…I'm his friend I have to help him" Naruto said helplessly._

"_Naruto, maybe he won't come back even if he realized that he doesn't hate Konoha. You know I think that maybe you have to accept that the Sasuke you knew doesn't exist anymore"_

"_Don't say that!" Naruto exploded and Hinata sighed _

"_What I mean is: think about all the people you've changed. Nagato, Gaara, Neji, you accepted who they were and then you changed their current soul. But with Sasuke, you try to make him someone he chose to give up. Maybe if you tried to change who he is now, instead of trying to change him back…"_

_Naruto's eyes widen "That is…Hinata that is amazing. I never looked at it that way"_

_Glad that he wasn't mad at her, Hinata allowed herself a big smile as she watched his expression as her words sunk in. She was feeling a little lighter now. _

_Thankfully Naruto broke the silence that hung over them. _

"_Ah I'm starving" Naruto found himself frankly searching in his head for any way to not having to end the night here, there was nothing left to say and he was probably supposed to leave but he didn't want to. He enjoyed spending time with her and he didn't want to be alone after all this talk. _

_Unsure Hinata bit her lip again she wanted to spend more time with him, but the conversation was over and she didn't want to seem clingy. Reluctantly Naruto looked at her to bid his goodbye, only to get beaten to it by his stomach _

"_See told you, I'm hungry"_

_A few moments of silence before Hinata laughed shyly "I can make you breakfast if you want to. It is after 5 am after all" _

_Naruto´s eyes were the size of saucers at this moment. "You would?" he asked happily. _

…

_Eagerly Naruto sat at the kitchen table watching Hinata making him scrambled eggs and toast. She had apologized about not having anything more since she had planned to go shopping today. _

_Naruto couldn't help but smile at an apology coming from a woman who knew exactly what his fridge used to look like. It didn't take long for an incredible smell to overtake the kitchen. Did she really just make scrambled eggs? It smelled way too good for that. _

_Suspiciously he observed Hinata as she cooked. Her back was turned to him while she was standing over the stove. _

_As he saw her standing over the stove, her back turned to him not expecting anything to attack her; he couldn't help the feral grin that appeared on his face. Smugly he smirked and carefully made his way towards Hinata. Standing directly behind her he brought his arms around her slender waist crushing her body close to his in the process and rested his head on her shoulders tickling her neck. _

_Smiling silently she turned her head a tiny bit and giggled happily. "It still needs to cook for a few minutes, Naruto. You can´t try it yet" _

_Grinning he whispered into her hear "I did come for a taste but I was not thinking about the food" _

_Blushing she turned to face him, now trapped between the counter and his body. Naruto gave a foxy smile and …_

_An amazing smell right in front of him snapped him out of his daydream, he blinked a few times. Still a little dazed he starred at the plate placed on the table. Confused Hinata observed him, when she had finished cooking she found him staring blankly in space with a goofy expression of bliss on his face. He looked so adorable. She didn't want to ruin this, whatever he was thinking about since he seemed complete content and honestly she had not once seen him more at peace and happy, especially after the conversation they just had. _

_How she wished she could walk over to him, hug him and ask him what he was thinking about. Painfully she reminded herself that they she was one of his many friends, nothing special just a friend, nothing more. Taking deep breaths she calmed herself and ignored the burning agony in her chest. From time to time it was horrible._

_Faking a smile she placed the food in front of him, carefully averting her eyes from his form. No matter how pleased she was with being friends and how hard she tried to get over him, he constantly made her love him more and sometimes it was just too much to bear. _

_If she had looked at him she would have seen a disappointed look taking over his features followed by shock and despair and last she missed him looking at her confused and with just a little bit of longing. _

_Just what the hell was wrong with him? Shaking his head Naruto took the chopsticks and was very gratefully she didn't look at him. What was that just now? How could he have such thoughts about HINATA? She was sweet and perfect and cute and innocent and…how he wanted to taint that…_

_Fuck. _

_Not the way this was supposed to go. He needed to snap out of this!_

"_Wow that's so good Hinata. Are you sure that's just eggs and toast?" he complimented her enthusiastically. _

_He was thanked with a sheepishly Hinata who gave him a soft smile "I´m glad you like it." _

"_Like it?" he asked incredulous "I love it!" _

_Satisfied with his response she sat down and joined him. _

…

_Just apologize, it's Hinata, she will forgive you. _Naruto repeated the sentence in his head over and over again hoping to crush the disturbing fear inside him telling him that she wasn't going to. Suddenly he felt so tired; he wanted to crawl in fetal position and cry.

He needed to think about it, Naruto had to think about a way to get her to forgive him. She was the most important thing in his life and he had to get it right! He couldn't wing it like he always did! He couldn't risk fucking it up more and making it worse.

* * *

**Any comments, questions, critism, notes or whatever it is you want to tell me, just tell me what you think.  
**

**Thanks beforehand**


	22. Chapter 19

**Thank you so much for reviewing and reading my story. Also due to popular demand I also uploaded a short reasoning for Shino and Shiho. I actually didn't plan to, because I only mentioned them, but I'm so happy someone was interested.**

**Actually this chapter (well a part of it) is the reason I even started it. It's the scene I first thought about and the rest of the story was just to embed this scene...and I'm still not entirely happy with it. But oh, well...**

**Funnily this is also the chapter where I expect to lose a lot of readers, but please at least read the authors note at the end.**

**Also someone called my attention to the fact that he/she was getting the feeling Hinata was becoming a Mary Sue. So now I'd like to know what to do against it.**

**And if you find mistakes then please point them out, since English is not my native language.**

**I don't own Naruto.  
**

* * *

**-19-**

"Would you wait here, Hanabi? I just need to take care of something and will be back in a few minutes"

The Kazekage left his office swiftly after offering her a seat.

Inside, Hanabi was still wondering what Gaara wanted to show her. That being the reason she was here in the first place. Not that she was complaining - not at all, spending time with Gaara was what made her day.

Only minutes later Hanabi was bored out of her mind, the whole day she had been incredibly nervous and exited for this and her impatience was starting to show. Taking a look around his office, she noticed that he had left his gourd behind.

With another look she confirmed no one was there and watching, she even activated her bloodline to check if Gaara was already on his way back. When she was sure that she had some time on her hand, she slowly approached the container of sand.

Hanabi knew Gaara's back ached under the weight of the gourd but he always refused to let her help him.

_Let's see how heavy it really is_. With that in mind she put her arms around it and lifted it up…or rather tried to and failed miserably. She couldn't lift the thing for the life of her. So it was determined that indeed it was heavy, but that wasn't enough for Hanabi. She wanted to at least be able to estimate its weight and therefore she had to lift the damn thing.

And she would! Because she was Hanabi Hyuga and the word impossible did not exist in her dictionary.

Looking back Hanabi couldn't explain how she ended up like that. Sitting in the middle of sand that used to be inside the gourd, which was kind of broken.

That could not be good.

She just broke something, well not something the gourd of the KAZEKAGE, the leader of Suna where she was a diplomat! That was not good at all!

She cursed under her breath while frantically trying to shovel the sand back with her bare hands. Maybe he wouldn't see it…if he magically lost the sense of sight.

"Tell me when you're done" a deep voice from the door made her shriek and spun around in a speed that she never saw herself capable of being.

Her gaze wandered back and forth between the mess she made and an amused Gaara leaning in the doorframe akimbo.

A swing of his hands and the sand was flew neatly back in the gourd and even stopped rippling out.

_Well, that was easy. _The young woman thought dryly.

"Uh, there's a good explanation for this…well, there is an explanation for this…There was a raccoon and I tried to catch it and it was mocking me and saying mean things and…"

The Kazekage just raised one eyebrow or the place where it should have been

"…Ok, maybe it wasn't a raccoon…if I tell you it was a squirrel you're not going to believe me either, are you?"

"No, but I bet it would be an interesting story to hear"

The woman gave up "I just wanted to see how heavy it is and turns out: REALLY heavy"

Gaara suppressed a smile at her hopelessly cute face

"I'm sorry I broke it. Please don't be mad. I didn't mean to and…"

Gaara stopped her "It's alright, not the first time it broke. It can be fixed easily, see?" The red head summoned sand to the hole in his gourd, pressing it together really hard and like a miracle all that was left was another small scratch on it.

Her mouth formed a silent 'Oh' tone.

"Well, now that we solved this, would you mind sharing as to why you would want to test the weight in the first place?"

Hanabi blushed furiously "Uh…I…I ju-just wanted to…"

Damn what was happening to her, did she turn into some kind of Hinata copy?

Gaara redeemed her finally "Shall we?"

Hanabi nodded but refused to meet his eyes, the tip of her ears painted in deep red. Gaara allowed his stoic expression to crack once again to form a smirk.

They were just in time for the sunset when they left the Kage building, the warmth from the lingering sunlight still present but it wouldn't be long before the cold and dark night would take over. They streets were still bustling with life but in mere hours they'd be deserted.

Following the Kazekage who lead her promptly through the village to a sand dune outside of it, Hanabi was busy berating herself for being such a pathetic fool in front of Gaara.

"I thought maybe you would like to see the most popular sport in Suna. Since the wind is so strong, it is almost impossible to play ball games, so…" he led her to the top.

Hanabi gasped "Wow! That is awesome!"

Gaara smiled, he had known Hanabi would love sand surfing. With sparkling eyes she looked up to him "Can I try?"

"Sure, that is why I brought you here. But you should be careful, the wind is really strong and therefore the speed is dangerous…"Gaara was starting to regret his choice. It was indeed dangerous; he hadn't been thinking clearly when he decided to bring her here. His mind had been filled with thoughts of her happy face when she would see and try it. But Hanabi was adventurous and she would want to test her limits and she'd be really fast….

What if she would fall down and seriously hurt herself? The thought of it made his insides feel really tight.

Hanabi smiled at him, her silver eyes brimming with anticipation "I'm not worried. It's surfing on SAND, you wouldn't let me fall"

She didn't see the look in Gaara's face when she turned around to watch the surfers some more.

The Kazekage could hardly believe the amount of trust she placed in his village loved and trusted him but the truth was that they trusted the Kazekage, not Sabaku no Gaara, former Jinchurriki. The way she casually put so much trust in him, took his breath away.

…

"That was so much fun! Do you believe how fast I was?" Hanabi jumped happily next to him, chatting about her wild ride on the dunes.

That was the last time Gaara was ever going to take her sand surfing, his heart had at least stopped ten times during her crazy surf. Did that woman even know the word careful? It was a foreign feeling for him to be scared of anything, his sand had always protected him, and so he never had to worry. And it was really ridiculous because it had been sand surfing not juggling knives.

"Why didn't you surf, Gaara?" her curious eyes wandered to catch his own.

_Because I was busy worrying about you._ The Kazekage just shrugged, showing his ever present stoic face.

_Why does he never do anything together with me_? Hanabi wondered, he seemed to enjoy spending time with her yet he didn't want to actually do the same things she did. When she had asked him to come to the swimming bath with her, she found out that he had never even been there and he flat out refused. It annoyed her to no end. Suna had such an awesome building and their leader didn't use it, and worse didn't even know it.

"Thank you for taking me, Gaara. I know you have a busy schedule, so it's nice you can squeeze me in"

The crimson haired male next to her simply nodded and smiled at her a little. Before they parted Hanabi invited him for dinner. As a thank you she explained to him.

…

It was preposterously easy. All he had to do was to catch the Hyuga once she left Kumo. She was only travelling with another member of her clan. He'd kill both of them off and take their eyes. It was easy, too easy and that was exactly the point. It didn't sit well with Sasuke. Hinata Hyuga was weak, most likely the weakest out of those who took the Chunin exams with him.

It wasn't that he pitied her. She wasn't fit to be a shinobi and in his opinion she was better off dead. But what Sasuke wanted wasn't to kill, what was in his opinion no more than a fly. He gritted his teeth, Orochimaru may be right. If he wanted to bring down Konoha starting to isolate them was most likely a good start. But it was all taking too much time. Sasuke had been very patient the last years, more than six years, he was sick and tired of being patient.

The person he wanted to kill the most was Naruto. That guy should have stayed dead last, that's where he belonged. But now, he was the Leaf's hero, the son of the Yondaime and soon to be Hokage. The dobe really made it – because people like his brother suffered.

It was maddening.

Suddenly Sasuke stilled, someone was coming his way.

…

"_Because I love you"_

Naruto jerked up from his dream, his breath heavy and shallow. He hadn't had dreamt about that in years. Why was this nightmare coming back now?

Naruto tried to even out his breathing but failed, every time he closed his eyes he could see Hinata. The way she smiled at him, even when the blood was already running down her face, her eyes showing all this emotions, her blood…kami her blood.

The way Pain had stabbed her; it was like an endless film running in his head over and over again. Naruto was trembling to his very core, cold sweat running down his back and he still couldn't catch a breath. His insides felt like there were on fire, guilt washing over him like a tornado, leaving nothing but destruction behind. She almost died for him, he got her hurt, and he couldn't protect her, he…

He stumble out of the tent and vomited. Every fiber of his body in turmoil, it felt like someone had punched him in the guts. He sank back slowly, resting his back against a tree. He waited until he calmed down a bit.

This couldn't be happening. He couldn't lose her, even the thought terrified him like nothing ever did.

When did he fall for her so bad? He never had that before and he never felt like that before.

He had gone eight-tailed right next to her! He could have killed her! He had put her in danger and that after she almost died...FOR HIM!

Naruto had lost control completely, like the time when he almost killed Jiraya. He had felt terrible after that but it was nothing compared to this feeling. Then there was the time when he had hurt Sakura, but this right now was …so much worse.

Why did he have to realize it only now? If only he wasn't so damn dumb! Everyone was right he was an idiot! But he had to at least save their friendship.

"_Because I love you_" he was never going to hear that from her ever again and it burned like hell, killing something deep inside of him. He needed her as a friend in the very least! He had to save that! Why couldn't he just get over her?

Like she got over him!

Kami, it hurt to say that.

He needed to think, how did he get over Sakura again? Right, he remembered the conversation he had with the pinkette about that, but she still was wrong…partially. He really did have feelings for her, deep feelings…well as deep as a twelve year old was able to feel.

But she had also been partially right. He had also been into her because of Sasuke, because of his loneliness, because he wanted affection and acceptance and because he thought she was pretty, but that wasn't all of it. He really had liked her, but at some point he just stopped.

Naruto suspected it was about the time when he traveled with Jiraya, to be honest he hadn't been thinking about Sakura that much. Most of his thoughts always lingered on Sasuke and when he had come back to the Hidden Leave, he still had all those lingering feelings for her but…he had felt different. He had thought it was love, but now he was sure it wasn't.

That had been remaining old feelings for her he had refused to let them go, because it was the one thing that was still how it used to be. How it used to be when Sasuke was still there and he wanted things to be like that so badly, he had held on to every bit that was left of it.

Well, he did love Sakura but he loved all of his friends, even Sasuke in some way…it just wasn't the same. It wasn't what he felt for Hinata. Naruto was sure he never felt anything close to the he felt when he was around her, when he thought about her, when he talked to her or smelled her or cooked with her…and he sure as hell had never felt anything even close to that what he was feeling right now.

And he was sure that not even in his darkest days had he felt as crappy as he did currently. It was like Hinata had given him a sweet little taste of heaven, she had made the sun shine down on him and then it was gone. Because he had walked away from it -

Sunny place, Hinata, this is what he felt when he was around her…and he lost it.

When he was a child he could only guess what he was missing out, but this was different, he could see them together, he could feel her touch. And now he was left in darkness after the sunshine left him.

After Naruto had controlled himself as good as possible, he started to pick up his normal travel pace; there was no need to hurry for him. Hinata wasn't in the village yet anyway and he needed time to think of a plan.

With his entire mind focused on a certain dark haired beauty he didn't feel the dark chakra signature approaching him…fast.

When he finally realized the situation, Naruto was barely able to dodge the first attack. It only took him a second to identify the owner of the chakra signature.

"Sasuke" he breathed out slowly.

"Not bad, dobe. You are good at dodging" crossed arms Sasuke stared down at his former best friend from a branch.

"Sasuke" Naruto had a hard time believing it, he had the one looking all over for him but Sasuke had just vanished and somehow Naruto had hoped he had given up on his plans to destroy Konoha

"I said you will be the first one to die, Naruto. Now that I have finished my preparations I can finally complete my revenge. You know it wasn't that easy to find a way how to beat the 'oh-so-great-war-hero' but as expected, Orochimaru had a lot more to give to me than I thought. I spend the last six fucking years learning the jutsus from those fucking scrolls, but now I know everything there is about the nine tails and you. You will be the first one to day"

Sasuke lunged at him.

Naruto tried, he tried really hard to make Sasuke listen to him, but his words didn't even seem to reach his ears. It had taken Naruto a while to realize that Hinata had been right, Sasuke was the one who had to choose to come back.** He** needed to want to change!

He just had to make him realize, that he indeed still had a choice, but Sasuke wouldn't listen. Naruto was desperate, he had to dodge all of Sasuke's attacks and try to get him to listen and none of it was working out too good for him.

Breathing heavily Naruto scrambled back to his feet. He could hear Kurama roaring in his head

'**Take him down already. What are you doing? It's like you don't want to. Kill him or he will kill you. This is not a fight where you can capture him. You have to go at him with all you have or you won't stand a chance!'**

And that was the point, by now Naruto had realized that he could never force Sasuke back but he couldn't bring himself to kill him. Sasuke was still like a brother to him and everything inside him rebelled against killing his best friend.

But the fight was starting to wear him down, he wouldn't last forever and he could not let Sasuke attack Konoha. Sasuke had learned a lot during the six years of disappearance and Naruto was having a hard time.

Naruto knew he should give his everything, had to if he wanted to make it out alive but he…he couldn't do it.

Killing Sasuke would mean giving up, he would break his promise to Sakura, and if he couldn't save his best friend he couldn't be a good Hokage. But the worst part was Naruto knew that he could never forgive himself. He couldn't keep living if he gave up on Sasuke, he could never face himself again.

But Naruto also couldn't let Sasuke violence Konoha. For Naruto it became harder to dodge Sasuke's assaults without killing him in the process.

"_**Just promise me you will try anything to come back safe" **_

His head jerked up, Hinata's pleading voice reaching the consciousness of his mind. He couldn't die here, he still had to set things right.

…

Hinata was so tired she could barely keep her eyes open, but it was going to be worth it. They would arrive in Konoha in less than three hours. She and Ko, her assigned guard had been traveling for hours without catching their breaths. Hinata was grateful for it, since it kept her mind off a certain blonde. But during her months of absent, she had made a resolution.

Naruto would listen to her; she wasn't just going to give up this friendship. Maybe it wouldn't be as deep as before, it never would be the same but at least she wanted to explain and defend herself and save maybe just a bit of their friendship. Hinata would make him listen to her.

A weird disturbance in the balance of the natural chakra made her look up, something was off. Simultaneously they activated the Byakugan. Hinata extended her bloodline to the maximum.

Gasping she stopped dead in her tracks. Oh no, no, no! This couldn't be happening.

Hinata and Ko didn't need to talk, without further interaction; they ran towards the two opponents. The adrenalin was pumping through her veins. _Please don't let me be too late. _

The air was ringing in her ears but she didn't care, her feet were flying over the ground. She was still far away when Ko stopped her and told her to deactivate her Byakugan. With it, they would be detected within the next meters. Reluctantly she followed his advice and they went on still fast but more carefully. Hinata curbed her impatience; they couldn't help Naruto if they got detected now.

When they finally reached the battle field there was nothing they could do anymore. Hinata grasped the situation in a matter of seconds, she turned to Ko.

"Go to Konoha, get someone here. I'll stay"

"But…" worried he looked around.

"Ko, please" the dark haired girl urged her eyes now fixated on Naruto.

With a nod the other shinobi left.

…

Naruto just stood there staring blankly at the body lying before him, his cheerful sapphire blue eyes dull and lifeless. Hinata's heart tightened painfully.

"Naruto?" softly Hinata took a step closer to him.

He didn't respond, didn't appear to have even seen her.

"Naruto?" slowly but steadily she got closer to him. Only when she was next to him, he looked up, his eyes staring right into hers, but not truly seeing her, just looking through her.

Gently she put a hand on his shoulder "Naruto?"

"I tried, I really did! He just wouldn't listen, he…I…I killed him" his voice was emotionless, broken "I …I don't deserve to be alive. I don't deserve to be Hokage. I broke my promise, I…" his voice cracked.

Hinata took another step closer to came to an halt when she was standing right in front of him close enough to feel his breath on her hair. She closed her eyes wondering what he needed now. He needed to know he was not to blame, that there was someone there for him who loved him unconditionally that he was not alone, letting her intuition guide her words before opening her eyes again.

"That is not true, Naruto. You did not break your promise. It wasn't yours to hold to begin with. Remembered when we talked about this? Even if you could have dragged him back, there wouldn't have been a guarantee he would have changed his mind. You did everything you could but the only person who could make the choice in the end was Sasuke himself" her voice was soft and low.

"He was blinded by hatred and what he chose wasn't up to you. You cannot make other peoples decision. You offered him all you could and tried to lead him down the right path, you held on to him all the time but you cannot save someone who doesn't want to be saved" her heart got heavier when she saw how he didn't even move a muscle.

"We can only inspire people to a certain point, in the end it is up to us if we save ourselves or if we give ourselves up." His eyes were still fixated on Sasuke's dead body; it was like he didn't even see her.

"You did not break your promise to Sakura. A promise is all about trying whatever you can do, doing your best. I wasn't able to keep all my promises but I always knew I gave it all I could. You don't think I shouldn't be alive, do you?" she reminded him,

"Naruto you are an amazing person. No one will blame you for this, no one will hate you" she brushed some strands from his bare forehead the sweat had made it stick to it, his protector lying on the ground forgotten.

"You did fulfill your promise, because you did all you could do. You are not to blame for this. What choice did you have? If you let him defeat you, he would have attack the village, people would have died, you saved them" she knew he was hurt and bleeding but Hinata trusted Kurama to take care of this. She wasn't a medic all she was good for was healing minor wounds and his were anything but minor. She hoped Ko would hurry.

Judging by his injuries he should be down, but the shock seemed to keep him from giving into his physical pain.

But he was giving into his psychological pain, right now she needed to concentrate on his soul.

"And I know you tried to persuade him, I know you tried all you could. I know because you always do. **I love you**, Naruto, because I **know** you"

Naruto broke down sobbing and crushed Hinata to his body, lifting her up by the waist and burying his face in her neck and in her hair. His arms tightened around her mid and he was pressing her as close to him as he could. Like he needed to feel she was real.

Hinata flung her arms around his neck, bringing her lips close to his ears "I love you because you give your best at everything, not just for yourself but for others. You fight not only for yourself, you fight for them, despite the fact that no one ever fought for you.

I love you because you don't give up, no matter what others say. You showed me that it doesn't matter how often a person falls, the only thing that matters is getting up one more time, you showed everyone what true strength is. You showed it to me.

I love you because you don't give up on others. Like you did for Sasuke, no matter what he did to you, you refused to let him go. You are the best friend anyone can wish for, we all know that. You believe in your friends and trust them to the very end and when they fall you are there to catch them.

I love you because I know you would never let me fall, you would never let anyone fall.

I love you because you always try to make people understand each other, you want to bring peace to this world and you live by it. The world of shinobi isn't perfect but you've kept your hope. And by doing that you gave hope to all of us.

I love you because you think you have to carry this all on you own, even when you don't. We will all help you and be there to share your goals and dreams and pain with you.

I love you because you care about your friends and the village, despite them treating you badly before. You forgave them and give them your heart.

I love you because you don't judge others for their flaws; instead you make them believe in their strength. I know that because that is what you did for me. And not just for me, just think about all the lives you changed for the better.

I love you because you can change people to the better; Neji, Gaara, and Nagato. You are the reason they found the light inside of them. You changed Neji and this is the only reason I was able to reach my goals, we changed the Hyuga clan only thanks to you. You saved my family; we would have broken apart a long time ago, if it wasn't for you. You changed Gaara, he knew only hatred and betrayal and you showed him that there is more in this world, that there are other ways to feel alive than to kill. And Nagato, you are the reason everyone in the village is still alive, he wouldn't have casted the Jutsu without you. You inspired them, just like you did with me. They believed in you and they still do, I believe in you. The village loves you, they need you.

Don't say you deserve to die, because I need you, because I love you" she felt his wet cheeks against the skin of her neck "You kept all your promises, because they are about trying your hardest and you did. You are the most amazing and inspiring person I know.

I love you because…" The words just kept flooding past her lips, she didn't stop and she didn't repeat herself, there was just too much she loved about him.

The cold inside his body disappeared, like her sunshine had fallen on him, warming him, leading him away from the abyss, away to a place warmed by the sun.

"I love you because you are funny; you make me laugh like no one else can, even when I'm down you manage to cheer me up. If I see you or even think about you I can't help but smile. I love you because you make me happy"

And slowly he let her invade all of his senses. Let her words wash away his guilt and self-hatred.

"I love you because you make my heart skip a beat whenever I think of you.

I love you because you can cheer me up in the most hopeless of situations. Whenever I feel down you make all the fear and the pain go away"

He didn't smell the blood and the burnt ground, not the death lingering in the air, just the sweet smell of strawberry and vanilla of Hinata's hair, inhaling her scent deeply, calming him, and bringing back a part of the peace in his heart.

He didn't see Sakura breaking down next to Sasuke's lifeless body or the rest of his friends arrival, didn't see the blood on the floor and his best friend's dead figure. He only saw her dark hair flowing around him, only saw the small delicate white of her skin.

He didn't hear Sakura's sobs or her cries; he just heard Hinata's words, desperately hanging on to her voice, and the words that took away his pain piece by piece.

He didn't feel the harsh wind full of ashes and death, nor the blood on his hands and the bruises on his body, he only felt her body against his, clinging on to her for his life. Felt her soft skin against his own, her hands soothing his soul, caressing his neck, his hair and head.

He didn't taste the blood in the air and in his mouth, not the salty tears streaming down his face. He only tasted the flavor of her skin as his face was resting in the crouch of her neck, leaving his lips to touch her bare skin.

Hinata didn't stop naming all the reasons she loved him, didn't stop telling him that it wasn't his fault, that he didn't have a choice.

"I love you because you fail, because you are not perfect, because every one of your weaknesses is a part of you, they make you who you are. You fail, because it is what makes you strong.

I love you, because of you mistakes, because sometimes you can be dense and slow.

I love you for all of your mistakes, **because **of them.

I love you because…"

Hinata felt him letting her go, his knees giving in, getting drawn to the ground. She supported him as they sank to the ground together; her lips always whispering her comfort to him, letting him know he was not alone, that no one hated him that she wouldn't leave him.

"I love you because you can be stubborn and childish and…"

Naruto felt darkness surrounding him, trying to refuse to let it take over, not wanting her sweet words to stop, but in the end he had to succumb to the darkness and let it take him away.

"I love you, Naruto"

* * *

**As always tell me what you think. Any comments, suggestions, notes, critism or whatever you want to tell me is very welcomed.**

**Now before the chapter I stated that I assume to lose some (if not the majority) of my readers. Why? Obviously because I killed off Sasuke, and no there won't be a jutsu that will bring him back to life of anything and yes that means this story will not be Sasusaku.**

**I will explain the reason for this when I explain the Sakura pairing. **

**However... after I finished this story I might do another one, so here's the challenge Sasusaku fans: If you want them to be in my possible following stories then please tell me why. Give me good reasons as the why they belong together, why the need each other and why the fit each other. **

**You could read my reasoing for my chosen Sakura pairing as I will state there why I did not chose Sasusaku and then tell me where I'm wrong. I'm not dead set against them, I just fail to see their beauty.**

**Sorry Sasusaku fans and Sasuke fans, I really hope you'll still keep on reading the story. **


	23. Chapter 20

**First, thank you so much for the reviews. I'm really happy I didn't lose the majority of my readers because I decided to kill Sasuke. **

**Also I was surprised to realize that most of you are not big Sasusaku fans, or maybe you want to wait who I picked and then give me your opinion in response to the Preface?**

**Anyway, thanks to all of you.**

**I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

**-20-**

"Hi – co-come in" Hanabi snuffled with tears rolling down her cheeks..

On her doorstep the Kazekage froze. "You're crying!"

Hanabi couldn't see the horror in his face because the tears were blurring her sight. She might have wondered where it came from if she had, but like that she only grimaced "Ah, never mind that"

"But you're crying! Who made you cry?" something inside him wanted to rip the person's throat out, no one made his Hanabi cry. Somewhere along the way Gaara's voice had become icy.

"No one, don't worry" she replied while wiping the tears away. Hanabi blinked a few times in a futile attempt to stop them from coming back again.

"Tell me" he ordered "I'll take care of it"

The woman almost laughed but managed to bite her lip. It was so cute, seeing him worked up about something that ridiculous yet she didn't feel like it was a smart move to laugh at him "Gaara, calm down. It's the onions, but don't worry they got what they deserved; I cut them into tiny pieces and burned them. Actually the burning part wasn't initially planned but…" she trailed off.

"Oh, well if that's so" Gaara wasn't sure why but he felt like he had just appeared in an unfavorable way and if he didn't know any better he'd call the feeling that took over his body embarrassment.

Ever since Hanabi stepped into his life she had irritated him, left him confused and wondering about his strange reaction, but the scary part was that he liked it. No scratch that, he carved for it. When it came to Hanabi he had all the weirdest thoughts and feelings. And he didn't mind it as much as he should.

For once he did **not** like it when she talked to a man who wasn't him, and that included his brother; they gave her these strange looks that made him furious. And then he was always thinking about her, the earrings still lying in his drawer mocking him with their very existence. And he felt the constant need to make sure she was alright, he didn't want anything to happen to her and he neglected his paperwork for her, well he still did it but whenever she came around he just left everything behind. Just to **be** with her!

He wanted to be around her all the time and when he didn't know where she was he got all uneasy and nervous.

All this added up to a mystery but as confused as Gaara was that didn't want to change it. He didn't want her to vanish from his life, despite of the secure and save world it would leave him with. In fact more than once he had found himself wondering if she smelled like chocolate all over her body or if her lips were as soft as they looked and if he tasted them, would they have the flavor of cookies?

A lot of attractive woman wandered the streets of Suna but no woman had ever made him feel that way. Then again no woman smelled like chocolate, only Hanabi.

"I'll bring it right out, you can sit down" she turned and went back to the kitchen. Her movement created an even more intense aroma around him. This time it was less chocolate and more a delicious smell of homemade meals, but the aftertaste of Hanabi's smell itself was sweet as always.

Gaara relaxed again, she did cry only because of the onions after all. Maybe he should pretend not to like onions because when Hanabi cried it made Gaara experience a really uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach. And it wasn't like he was a particular fan of onions.

"Ah! Shoot!" the auburn haired woman cried out.

Gaara was inside the kitchen not even a second later "What happened?" he urged as he saw her clutching her hand.

"Nothing…." Hanabi wanted to die from embarrassment right at this spot. There she was **daydreaming **about the **Kazekage** and didn't watch her hand with a **knife **in it…she may had never served as an active kunoichi but really? Cutting her finger with a cooking knife! It was nothing short of pathetic.

"You're bleeding!" Gaara pointed out seemingly calm.

But was that concern she heard in his voice?

"Yeah, don't worry it'll stop soon" Hanabi put her thump in her mouth to stop the blood from dripping on the floor. She felt so stupid, if Gaara hadn't been here she might have hit her head on the table.

Gaara's heart was beating so fast he was afraid she could hear it. But when he had come in and there was **blood** pouring out of **her **skin, Gaara had felt…scared. He felt a part of his ever stoic face falter, more than it already had with her.

"Let me see" it wasn't a request.

Reluctantly Hanabi held out her a dainty hand. When his hand, roughed from the sun and the sand, touched her smaller soft one, Hanabi held her breath as a sweet shiver ran from the spot he touched her, up all the way to her hand and spread over the rest of her body.

"I...I-It's fine, r-really"

Damn it she **was** turning into Hinata and judging from how hot her cheeks felt there was a good chance she was blushing like crazy….and did she feel a little faint?

Shit!

Gaara regarded the cut finger with a frown, there had been a time when every fiber in his body demanded blood, and a time where he enjoyed making people bleed, but this was different. Hanabi was hurt, ignoring the fact that it was a simple cut and not a life threating wound, his first impulse was to pick her up and ran to the hospital as fast as possible.

But that would be REALLY ridiculous, even standing there and behaving like she just tried to kill herself was an overreaction. Suddenly he felt her losing balance; her knees were shaking and gave in. He caught her softly not even bothering to hide his concern.

"You should lie down!" he looked up "Your face is all red, maybe you have a fever" he concluded.

Hanabi wanted to scream, she almost fainted and blushed like HINATA and if she was Hinata then Gaara was Naruto and now he was even behaving like the blond idiot. Fate was mocking her! It was the only explanation.

…

What was this noise?

It was so loud, like a bee swarm.

And it was bright, too bright even with his eyes closed it was still too bright.

"Naruto?"

That was his name.

Slowly he opened his eyes, letting them adjust to the light.

Where was he?

From the looks of it he was in the hospital and the worry on Tsunade's face indicated that he was hurt. Naruto tried to remember what happened, he was on his way home from the mission and then….Sasuke.

"I killed him, didn't I?" his blue eyes looked up into Tsunade's soft honey brown ones.

"I'm sorry Naruto, there was nothing we could do" softly she patted his hand "You are fine or rather you are going to be in a few days. The Kyuubi did a marvelous job on most of your wounds, so you should be fine soon" she smiled at him "How are you feeling?"

But Tsunade wait for an answer was counting for nothing. Naruto kept staring at a blank spot on the ceiling. After not getting an answer for several more question attempts, the Sannin gave up and instead handed him a plate "You need to eat something at least, Naruto"

The blond man shook his head "I'm not hungry Tsunade"

The Hokage sighed, not knowing whether to be grateful he finally said something or dejected because he refused to eat. It was a little worrying that he had called her Tsunade, she'd never thought the day would come where she would die to hear a Baa-chan "Fine later then, but you have to eat. For now I need you to tell me what happened".

Outright he refused, not wanting to think or talk about it. His eyes clouded and the pain was almost visible for Tsunade.

"Naruto I'm sorry but…" Tsunade really wished she could give him more time, but he had been out for the whole day and the elders were up her ass. If she could she would give them a piece of her mind, but for Naruto's sake it was rather she'd ask him than having one of them come to ask him. They demanded to know how the last possessor of the Sharingan was killed and since Naruto was soon to be Hokage, they wanted proof he had the maturity and stability to handle what happened and give them a full report, stupid, inconsiderate bastards.

Tsunade was certain that if she didn't give them information, they would come and bother Naruto themselves. Something Tsunade would not let happen, those old bitter hauls had no idea what Naruto was just going through.

Naruto closed his eyes, this was something he had to do and it was his duty as a shinobi, so he sucked in air, preparing himself to be confronted with the excruciating memories "I was on my way back to Konoha and then Sasuke attacked out of nowhere. I tried to talk to him, I really did, but…he just wouldn't stop and…"he frowned trying to remember "I…I don't know Tsunade. I can't remember all of it. It's all blurry and unclear and there are some black spots…I don't know…"tears were streaming down "I can't remember how I killed him"

"It's fine, Naruto. Don't force it; it will come back when you're ready. How are you feeling?" she sat next to his bad, patting his hand softly, hoping another try of asking for his state was not fruitless this time.

"Oh I'm just great, now that I killed my best friend I'm awesome" he laughed bitterly, still crying.

Maybe the question was not the best idea, Tsunade looked at him worried. His body might heal in a matter of days but his mental constitution was a different matter. She was going to keep him in the hospital until she was sure he could handle it. "Will you please eat something?"

"I'm not hungry" his tone was emotionless again, and then it became frustrated "I want to remember"

The brown eyes of Tsunade filled with even more concern "Let's try something then. Close your eyes and try to remember how you felt, what you felt during the attack, how it smelled like, the sounds, anything you can think of. Maybe that will trigger a memory"

"I'm not sure…" Naruto didn't feel like going through that again, then again if it helped him remember he guessed he should. But was he sure he wanted to remember? Naruto closed his eyes determined; he was not going to let this fear get the better of him

"Ok, when I first met him I was surprised, shocked and…angry. I wanted to help him so desperately but he just wouldn't listen, so I got frustrated. I was mad and disappointed, angry, and everything was so loud, clashing kunais and explosions, breaking trees…" he stopped "…and then I felt tired and …sad. It smelled burned and I could smell blood and sweat, and it was so still, I could only hear my own breathing, it was so heavy. There was so much hate in me but…it wasn't directed at Sasuke. I hated myself so bad and there was guilt so much guilt and then I got cold, really cold…" a frown appeared on his face "But…but then I got warmer, like really slowly light was pouring into me. I don't know the bad smells all disappeared, or rather they were being replaced but I don't know what it smelled like, but it wasn't bad And …I…it…it disappeared all of it, all the hatred and the guilt, the warmer it got the more I felt my hate fading and …" his eyes snapped open "I don't understand Tsunade. What does this mean?"

The Hokage couldn't answer him what it was, she didn't know either. "I'm sure it'll come back when you're ready. Did this trigger any memory?" when Naruto shook his head, the blonde only nodded in response "Now you have to eat something" once again she handed him the plate.

But again Naruto told her he wasn't hungry, leaving Tsunade more worried as she exited his room.

"Can we visit him?" Kiba had shot up, when he saw Tsunade leaving the room. The rest of Naruto's friends lingering around close by came forward as well.

She nodded "Yes, but please not all at once and please try to make him eat something"

She glanced at the men fighting over who got to get in first and was almost tempted to smile. Next the Hokage wanted to take a look at how Sakura was doing; Ino and Hinata took care of her right now.

…

Those two exchanged helpless looks; Sakura hadn't stopped crying since she had seen Sasuke's body. The pinkette was a mess, tears and snot had mixed up on her face and she didn't even care, she was just sitting there crying. She hadn't talked since then neither.

"Hey Sakura" Hinata put an arm around her friend, pressing her close "Everything will be ok"

Even in her head it sounded stupid, but Hinata didn't know what to say. She was worried about Naruto, her mind constantly revolving around him; she would have preferred to be there when he woke up, but…

Truth be told, she wasn't what Naruto needed now. She could do nothing for him, it was painful to admit but he didn't need her right now. What Naruto needed now was not something Hinata could give to him, Naruto needed Sakura, and he needed to know Sakura was going to forgive him. It wasn't his fault, but he probably still felt guilty and Sakura was the only person who could relieve him from this feeling.

It was a horrible sensation that she couldn't do anything for him. She felt like the stupid, pathetic girl she used to be when he had needed her in his past. Like all the times she saw his pain and just watched because she was too afraid to talk to him, the memories played over in her head. Never again did she want to feel that way, even now that they were friends she often felt like she had failed him. Whenever she saw his eyes getting sad at the scene of a child with his parents, she felt a pang in her heart. Guilt because she didn't help him, because she had been so pathetic and scared and selfish, she didn't want to go back there.

And that was why she was here instead of the hospital like she wanted to be so badly. It wasn't like she didn't care about how Sakura was, it was just…Naruto.

But she couldn't help him there, the sooner she got Sakura back on her feet the better, she wanted to make sure that she'll tell Naruto that he didn't have to feel bad. Because Hinata was certain, if she herself told him he wouldn't believe her.

They had been taking care of Sakura for hours and no change. Another glance at Ino showed her, that the blonde was at loss too.

…

Sakura felt like her heart had just been ripped out, seeing Sasuke dead was her worst nightmare coming true. She could have done nothing for him, when they had arrived he had been dead for about an hour. She had felt completely useless, like when she was a Genin. Another wave of trembling pained her body, she had cried so much and there was no end to it.

And she knew she was worrying her friends, but she couldn't bring herself to speak up.

…

When someone knocked on Sakura's door it was Hinata who answered. "Karin. What are you doing here?"

The red head's gaze swapped over the Hyuga heiress critically, Hinata looked tired and the red around her eyes showed that she had cried not all too long ago. Karin hadn't even been aware that Hinata cared so much about him. Or maybe it was rather Naruto than Sasuke that Hinata was worried about.

"You know Hinata, why don't you go visit Naruto in the hospital? I just left and he still refuses to eat, maybe you could get him to eat something" Karin entered the house and took off her jacket.

"He doesn't eat? How is he? Is he ok?" the fear she had tried to control that much was finally showing and the information that Naruto wasn't eating didn't help to ease it.

Karin smiled "Tsunade said he'll be fine, but that he really should eat something. Don't worry I'll help Ino and talk to Sakura"

Hinata hesitated, she wanted to see Naruto, but if she stayed here with Sakura then she could get her to talk to Naruto and… "Karin, Naruto really needs to know that he didn't do anything wrong. He needs to hear it from Sakura and…"

"I understand" Naruto's cousin softly shoved the dark haired beauty out "I'll talk to her"

"Thank you"

…

Karin grimaced when she saw the state Sakura was in. "Hey Sakura, how are you?"

All she got for an answer was a pathetic whine.

"Look I understand that you hurting and you just lost someone who you loved, but you have to calm down a little. Try taking deep breaths" gently Karin put Sakura's hand in her own "You know how I feel in love with Sasuke? He saved me in the Forest of Death during the Chunin exams and I thought he was so cool" she sighed at the memory "But you know the Sasuke who saved me back then and the one who got killed today, the one who wanted to kill you, who tried to kill me, the one who hated Konoha. They were not the same person and …."

Ino's eyes widen. Karin was the perfect person to help Sakura, because unlike herself Karin had seen him, known him, how he was when he left Konoha. Meanwhile Sakura only knew him before and maybe, just maybe Karin could help her.

Absently her fingertips grazed the bracelet Chouji had given her on their first date. Ino was glad that she had gotten over Sasuke a long time ago, still losing your first love like that. She couldn't deny that it hurt.

…

Hinata walked deliberately slowly to the hospital. Her insecurities were weighting down on her every step. She was scared that she couldn't help Naruto or maybe he wouldn't want to see her. They still hadn't resolved their fight before she had left, maybe he was still made, but anyway she also doubted he'd care about that right now. And all the things that had happened between them after she had found him, everything she told him, things would become awkward.

Hinata almost felt like running away, she was afraid to face Naruto, to realize that after all this time there was still nothing she could do for him. To see, that she was useless and to know that the person he needed most wasn't her, but… Silent tears were running down her cheeks, he needed Sakura not her, and she couldn't blame him or her. By now Hinata was nearly convinced that she had been wrong. Maybe Naruto was still in love with his former teammate. She was so scared of rejection, of being useless; she was scared of seeing Naruto.

And at the same time there was nothing she wanted more, than see for herself that he was alive and ok. She wanted to make up with him and go back to be friends. And she was glad the hot box of Ramen was reminding her that she was doing the right thing, no matter how afraid she was of the consequences.

By the time Hinata reached the hospital the sun was setting. Visiting hours were already over but Tsunade had made sure Hinata would get in. The fifth had answered her question as to when Naruto was allowed to leave with a shrug and said

Hinata knocked at his door, hoping he wasn't sleeping yet. When she didn't hear a reply, she opened the door cautiously. Naruto was lying on his bed, inspecting the ceiling intensely, only looking up when she called his name gently.

She smiled sweetly and placed the Ramen in front of him "I heard you're not a big fan of the hospital food, so I picked up a box of Ichiraku's for you"

"I'm not hungry" that seemed to have become his favorite phrased and Hinata definitely preferred Dattebayo anytime.

"Oh" she looked to the ground, Naruto still hadn't forgiven her "If you want something other than Ramen, you can tell me, I'll make it for you. But you have to eat something. Please!"

She looked like a picture of misery, standing there fiddling with her fingers nervously and using her hair to hide her face. It showed how uncomfortable and insecure she was feeling.

With a sigh he finally reached for the chopsticks and opened the set of food with a sigh. It smelled delicious and it was only then Naruto realized how hungry he actually was. Relief washed over the bluenette, watching him slurping down the noodles.

In less than ten minutes he was done "Thanks, it was good"

"You're welcome, Naruto" another warm smile was send his way.

Then they felt silent again. Naruto finally spoke up "You didn't ask"

Surprised she tilted her head in confusion.

"You didn't ask how I was. Everyone who came in today asked, but you didn't" he explained.

"I can`t imagine how you must feel and I am sure if you want to share it with me you will"

Naruto nodded, that was so like her, never pressuring him or pushing him. "It's weird you know, different than I thought it would be" Hinata kept quiet not wanting to interrupt him

"I just thought I would feel different. I thought I would hate myself so much I wanted to kill myself, but…it's weird. I don't feel good, I feel horrible but mostly I feel sad, just sad, and not even too angry. Because I lost Sasuke and I wasn't able to bring him back, because he is dead, but…There isn't as much self-hate and guilt as I pictured it…and…"she saw him hesitating, almost ashamed "…there is this tiny little part of me, really small and I wish it wasn't there but…there is this tiny part that feels a little …relieved? I…I'm a horrible person, I don't deserve to have so many friends, I…" he was crying again.

Gently Hinata took his hand, rubbing over his rough skin with her soft thumb, calming him.

"That is not true Naruto. You're feelings are nothing to be ashamed for. What happened wasn't your fault, so you don't have anything to feel guilty about. You saved all of us, you know that, don't you? Sasuke was lost and you tried your best to help him find his way but he didn't want your help. Naruto, this quest to bring Sasuke back that was killing you. Like a stone holding you and weighing you down, so the part of your soul that feels just this tiny bit of relief is the part where you kept all of this weight. You shouldn't feel bad, because you didn't do anything wrong"

Naruto shook his head "I'm not sure I think I just don't feel so bad yet, because I can't remember all of it"

That was news to Hinata; no one had told her that Naruto had a partially amnesia.

"I remember only bits and parts, clear moments mixed up with blurred one and black spots. I don't remember how I killed him"

"I'm sure when your memory comes back; you'll still have nothing to feel guilty about. I know you; you wouldn't have done it if it wasn't inevitable"

Something in the back of his mind pounded, when she said that but Naruto couldn't place it, so he ignored it for the moment "Thanks"

Hinata smiled at him, she wanted to ask him to live at her place until he felt better, or forever, she wouldn't mind, but she didn't know how he would react. Was he still mad? Or would he rather be alone?

They sat in silence for a little longer. Darkness fell outside and Naruto's fatigue won over, slowly he was nodding away, falling into slumber. With a soft smile Hinata got up from her chair and pulled his blanket up. And after gently stroking his blond hair away from his eyes, she silently left the room.

After that it became some kind of routine for them. The next three days Naruto kept rejecting the hospital food and Hinata made it her personal goal to at least make him eat. So she brought him homemade food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They wouldn't talk much, but it made Hinata feel a little bit less useless.

Sakura was still mourning and not yet ready or willing to talk to anyone. Hinata's insecurities were piling up, all she could do for him was cook and she didn't fell like it was helping him at all.

Tsunade had told her that physically Naruto could leave the hospital by now, but since she was still concerned about his mental health, she was going to keep him there until he wanted to leave.

But Hinata was wrong. Naruto was entirely grateful for her. Every day he was looking forward and her presence kept reminding him, that he was not a bad person. What she had said to him when Pain attacked was playing in his head. She had told him that he had changed her and gave her inspiration and hope. And somehow the thought of this gave him strength. He really wanted to go back with her. Living with Hinata had been the best time of his life and he wanted that privilege back. But he had lost it when he had screamed at her and said all those untrue spiteful things to her. Naruto just missed it so much, he didn't want to go back to his lonely apartment, and he'd rather stay in the hospital, where he wasn't alone.

"Good afternoon, Naruto. I made a stew today, I hope you'll like it" Hinata balanced the lunch while closing the door behind her.

"Thanks Hinata, I'm sure it's great. It always is"

He stopped eating, when he noticed her nervous fiddling. She bit her lower lip unsure "Uh, Naruto… I – I was wondering… No, I mean, if you want, I…"

Naruto's brows furrowed. He hadn't seen her behaving like that in years and he didn't like it one bit - she looked so small and weak and insecure and not confident at all.

"You…if you want to you…" Hinata searched her bag, her hand reappearing with the key he had left at her kitchen table after their fight. "If you still want to you can also come by and I'll make you dinner there. But I can bring it to you too, of course, to the hospital or to your home…wherever…"

"Hinata" Naruto interrupted her "I want to go home…with you if that's alright"

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**Tell me what you think, any comments, critism, notes, suggestions, opinions and the pinpointing of mistakes is greatly appreaciated.**

**You know everytime I listen to Skillet's Imperfection I have to think of Hinata, I think the song fits her so well.**

**On a side note: I'm looking for a Beta, son any ideas on that?**


	24. Chapter 21

**Thank you very much for reviewing.**

**I don't own Naruto.**

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**-21-**

It was frustrating really, Gaara mused, he was going crazy over this woman and she had no idea, but how could she if he didn't understand it himself. Ever since Hanabi first came to Suna, he was constantly confused and irritated and thinking about her. That being the reason why he just made a fool out of himself in front of his brother and the point was there was no logical reason for him to let his mind drift to her more often than necessary. That was so unlike him.

But what was there to do? It was all, this woman's fault to start with, damn it!

Great, now he started to curse in his head. He never did that. He was composed and calm and rational, he was not a confused unsure-of-everything mess. Gaara was not stupid, the opposite of it, so he was well aware of the position he got himself in. It was safe to assume that the feared and mighty Kazekage of Suna was in love.

It certainly explained all of these weird emotions washing over his body as soon as he saw Hanabi …or thought about her ...it also explained the way he thought about her.

It explained why he felt angry when another male talked to her or worse made her laugh.

It explained why he wanted to make her happy and it explained why he felt uneasy when he didn't know for sure that she was perfectly save, like when she was doing that mad ride on the surfboard.

It explained why he wanted to kill the person who dared to make her cry.

It explained why he was freaking out when she was hurt, like when she cut herself last night.

And it explained his very…physical reaction when he thought about the body she was hiding underneath her clothes.

Well, so much to his symptoms, the problem was how to deal with it. How it could even happen in the first place was a mystery to him.

Up until now Gaara had been certain he wasn't capable of such an intense feeling, sure he loved his siblings and his village however what he felt for Hanabi was …somehow different. He still had problems adjusting to that feeling and he sure as hell had no idea how to act on it. Besides there was still the question of what Hanabi felt. From what he could tell she did like to spend time with him, but then again she had fun with almost everyone, he was no exception for she also hung out with Kankuro.

But she did spend a lot more time with him, though, he thought triumphantly.

And even assuming he'd somehow miraculously was able to convey his feelings correctly – which he doubted – and she somehow miraculously would be willing to commit to a relationship with him – which he doubted - still he had no idea how to behave in a relationship. not to mention he was still caring the garbage of his past around with him. And Hanabi didn't know as much about his past as most…She knew nothing about who he used to be …what he did.

Would she still want to be with him? Gaara groaned, why did she have to come and make his life so complicated? Everything was such fine the way it was before she came. Plain and boring, exactly how he liked it with no surprises and problems other than what came alongside his duty of being the Kazekage.

He really didn't have time to think about it right now, because the meeting with the council was going to start in a few hours and they were expecting him to talk about the happenings in the village. Meaning he had to at least write down a few notes or preferably a speech, which he couldn't do because his mind was stuck on Hanabi Hyuga. The Kazekage growled.

"Don't worry Gaara, the council just canceled the meeting" Hanabi entered his room.

Without knocking one might ask.

Hanabi had indeed knocked but Gaara had been too wrapped up in his thoughts to hear. He raised an invisible eyebrow "How come?"

"Well, it seems like somehow most of the council members have fallen ill" he didn't fail to notice the smirk on her face.

"And you wouldn't know why that is?" he asked suspiciously.

"Poor innocent me? Of course not!" she sat down still smirking "But let me tell you a little, completely unrelated story from when I was twelve"

…

_Some people in the village of Konoha believed the biggest prankster they had ever seen was Uzumaki Naruto. Oh, how wrong they were…_

_Hanabi was annoyed and pissed to no end. And that really wasn't a good combination and people should really learn that._

_Stupid council! First of all, they hated her sister and tried to make her life as miserable as possible and secondly had they decided to have a meeting with both her father and Neji on her BIRTHDAY! Therefore completely ruining it! It was unforgivable! _

_But Hanabi didn't feel like letting them do as they pleased. In the contrary, the moment she had heard about it a devious plan started to form in her head. It had to be timed perfectly and needed careful preparations but if done right… Hanabi whistled contently. She knew she could pull that off without getting caught._

_It would not only save her birthday but also humiliate the stupid council members, not to mention it would be funny as hell. And no member of the council would ever talk about it, so she was completely safe._

_The twelve year old jumped up when her sister walked toward her with a confused look on her face. "The weirdest thing just happened; Father just told me that the council canceled the meeting. As far as I know most of them called in ill a few hours ago, at first they thought they could still do it, but now almost every male member is sick. I wonder how contagious that must be. Some of them even needed to go to the hospital. I hope they will be ok" _

"_I'm sure they will! More importantly - does that mean we can celebrate my birthday with Neji and Dad?"_

…

_To say that Sakura was surprised was an outright understatement, she was shocked. _

_What the hell was wrong with the Hyuga clan? Or better with the male and slightly older part of the Hyuga clan? _

_One after another they dropped in, all with the same ashamed and embarrassed face and they all had the same problem! It was almost funny…Scratch that it was hilarious. Weird and hilarious, and most likely not a coincidence, she really wondered who they pissed off. Because sure as hell, someone must have set them up, usually she'd suspect Naruto, but … well this didn't seem like something he could pull off, besides it was too subtle. If it would have been Naruto the whole village would know about it now. So who did it?_

…

_Hanabi blew out the candles with a content feeling of triumph inside of her. She had always wondered why the council consisted of about 90 percent males, but she never thought it could work out in favor for her. _

_It really hadn't been easy, first she wanted to put some laxative in their drinks but then that would have been too obvious or put some sleeping pills into the food, but she didn't trust she would get the dose right. _

"Exactly what did you put into their drinks?" Gaara was not yet sure whether to smile or to sigh.

"Well" Hanabi smiled "Back then you know I was young and naïve and oh-so-innocent. So in a chain of unfortunate events, I might have stumbled upon small blue pills and accidently smashed them to dust and then somehow they ended up in the water. It was really not on purpose; personally I think it must have been karma"

"You gave them Via…" Gaara rubbed his temple while trying not to look too amused.

_According to her research you should consult a doctor when "it" lasted longer than five hours and it took effect after about one. Since Hanabi figured that none of the councilman wanted to meet with a boner she decided to give it to them two hours before the meeting. _

_And because it was so embarrassing she could also be sure none of them was going to talk about it. Even if they did they wouldn't pursue the suspicion, because they would never admit it openly. It was a perfect and flawless plan. _

_Happily Hanabi dug into her chocolate cake and munched away happily._

…

"You didn't give my council…" Gaara rubbed his temple harder. She wouldn't… she couldn't have…

"But as I said it is completely unrelated to the situation at hand, but isn't it a funny coincidence?" she smiled wickedly at him.

Oh, who was he kidding of course she had.

"I'm not sure whether to be impressed that you were able to poison my whole council or to be mad because of our lack in security"

"I wouldn't go as far as calling it poisoning. There is a complete natural way to get rid of it" she mumbled.

"Well, thanks a lot for that picture" he answered dryly.

In Hanabi's defense she had been really pissed to hear the council wanted to meet Gaara today. It was her birthday after all.

…

"How did you sleep?" Hinata was in the middle of preparing breakfast, when she heard Naruto coming into the kitchen.

He shrugged, _not as bad as I thought. _

"I made pancakes" Hinata tried again, this was weird, normally Naruto was the one talking with no interruption.

"Great thanks" he managed a faint smile.

Hinata was glad, that Naruto had wanted to come home with her, but the two days he had been here, he had seemed like a ghost. Hinata felt terrible that she wasn't able to do more, plus they hadn't spent as much time together as she'd liked, Hinata was still trying to convince Sakura that Naruto needed her now, so she also tried to spend a lot of time with Sakura.

At least the pinkette was getting better from day to day it was mostly thanks to Ino but Hinata felt like the talk with Karin had also helped Sakura to see that the Sasuke she loved had died long before; yesterday she even promised she'd talk to Naruto soon.

The dark haired woman was relieved; she wanted to see Naruto smile again soon, not just that pitiful shadow of how it used to shine. Her musing was interrupted by a knock on the door; Naruto didn't even look up when Hinata raised to get it.

"Sakura?" it was like her wish was heard "Come in please. Would you like breakfast?"

The medic shot her head "I…I just wanted to talk to Naruto"

Hinata nodded "Thank you. I'll just get my coat and leave you two alone"

Sakura protested, not wanting to chase Hinata out of her house.

"It's fine. I have to go to the post office anyway to send Hanabi a letter" smiling Hinata lead the emerald eyed woman in the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" alarmed Naruto looked at Hinata when he saw her wearing her coat.

"Don't worry I'll be back in about an hour" Hinata smiled softly when she saw his pained expression when his eyes met Sakura.

Hopefully this would be over soon. Hinata was really worried about Naruto and she knew that the only thing that might help him was when he knew that Sakura didn't blame him. She was the one he made the promise of a lifetime to, therefore only she could grant him forgiveness, even if there was nothing to forgive.

"So, how are you Naruto?" Sakura asked nervously.

"I…it's alright" he didn't meet her gaze.

"It wasn't your fault, you know. I…I never thought that you…you wanted to hurt Sasuke. I know you were just trying to save everyone and Sasuke…he didn't want to be one of them. I'm …not mad at you or anything. Mostly I'm just sad" tears threatened to fall and she bit them down.

…

Naruto and Sakura talked for hours, crying and laughing at old times. They started t pull out old pictures and dug up stories from long ago. For Naruto it was good to talk to someone who understood how much Sasuke meant to him. It wasn't that Hinata didn't try anything to understand and help him. And Naruto would never deny that he loved talking to her, it was healing too. But unlike Sakura, Hinata didn't have had a bond with Sasuke.

And Naruto finally understood why Sakura decided to leave Konoha. And he understood why she still wanted to leave. She was going to depart shortly after Sasuke's funeral.

After the door closed behind his former teammate in the early evening, Naruto smiled a little bit, it was good to know he had such great friends.

On her way home Sakura ran into Naruto's roommate.

"Hey, how did it go? You're feeling better?" Hinata asked softly.

Sakura smiled at Hinata's concerned tone "Yes, a lot. Thank you for making me do that. Without your push I would have waited with this. I was really scared to face him, I mean if it wasn't for me and if he never made that stupid promise…"

The Hyuga heiress intercepted immediately "Sakura that is not true. Naruto would have gone after Sasuke without making a promise to you"

A sad smile showed on the medic Nin's face "Yeah, but my promise made everything so much worse and he felt so guilty and…"

Hinata didn't reply for Sakura was right.

"Don't worry Sakura, he'll get over it" she finally told the pinkette.

That was something Sakura was sure of, Hinata wouldn't let him fall. She didn't have to be worried about her blond teammate; he was in the best of hands with Hinata taking care of him when she left for Suna.

…

"I can't do this"

"Don't worry I'll be there the whole time" Hinata took Naruto's hand in her own, running her thumbs over the back of his hand.

Today was the day of Sasuke's funeral and Naruto was worse than ever. He had barely talked and was white as a sheet. From time to time a quiver seized him.

"I can't go" he whispered "I shouldn't, I was the one who killed him. This is my entire fault"

"Hey, hey, hey" Hinata stepped in front of the blond her left hand still intertwined with his. Softly she made him look at her by running her hand over his cheek "That is not true and despite everything you were his best friend and believed in him till the end. If anyone deserves to be there it's you"

Unsure he asked her again "You're not gonna leave?"

"Of course not, I promise, Dattebayo!"

That got a shaking smile out of him and he relaxed a bit.

Naruto honestly had expected a small funeral. Apart from his friends, he didn't think anything would come, but he turned out to be wrong. Half of Konoha was there. Blue eyes widen "Why? Why are they..?" His voice sounded hoarse. He knew most of the villagers and his comrades detested Sasuke for what he had done, so why would anyone come for Sasuke.

"They're not here for Sasuke" Shikamaru came to a halt next to them "they're here for you"

Hinata felt her hand being squeezed in a painful manner, but didn't remark on it. She, herself had trouble keeping her emotions in check. So many people had come only to pay respect to their future Hokage by attending the funeral of a traitor.

Later Naruto would swear he wouldn't have made it through the funeral without Hinata. Whenever he was close to a break down, she seemed to know and he felt a thump running over his hand or a reassuring gentle squeeze or a sweet little smile. The one thing that didn't make him run away was her hand that kept him up during every single part of the ceremony.

Naruto was grateful when it was finally over, he was sure when it had been going on for another minute Sakura would have jumped down the grave. She looked horrible and he couldn't help the feeling that it was his fault.

Still the feeling wasn't as worse as he pictured it. There was always a part of him, whispering that it wasn't his fault, comforting him and calming the battle inside of him. Oddly the voice reminded him of the sweet, patient woman besides him.

…

Naruto flopped down on the couch, feeling surprisingly a little lighter than before the funeral. He felt like maybe he could finally find closure. His memory was coming back piece by piece; a lot of black spots had been filled, though there were still some parts missing. And whatever he remembered, no reasons why he should feel guilty came to his mind.

Then again the actual kill was still a missing piece as well as how he got to the hospital, but Naruto knew now that he truly had tried everything to make Sasuke see that he could still change. As worse as the funeral had seemed in the end Naruto was glad, it gave him a chance to leave it all behind him.

"You're better" it was a statement, not a question, Hinata sat down beside him.

"Yeah, actually I do feel better. It is weird but I do feel better" he smiled at her, the clouds in his eyes lifted.

A wave of relief washed over her and the stone on her heart busted, seeing Naruto finally smiling sincere again.

"Hey have I ever told you about the time me and Sasuke had to run a three leg race?"

She leaned back relaxed and watched the man she loved waving his arms to emphasize the specials in the story. Now that he was willing to talk about Sasuke so freely, Hinata was sure that Naruto was on the road to recovery.

As always Hinata was the perfect audience laughing, gasping, smiling and frightened at the right parts, there was no one Naruto liked to tell stories more to than Hinata.

"Wow you are so cool, Naruto" admiring she looked up to him, biting her lip to prevent laughter from bursting out.

Suspiciously he narrowed his eyes at her "Are you mocking me?"

Faking her most innocent look she asked pouting "Would I ever do that to you?"

"Yeah, you would. But I will not just take it. Prepare yourself!" Naruto leaped at her

"No!" Hinata shrieked trying to dodge his attack but it was in vain. She shrieked in laughter as he started to tickle her.

She squirmed underneath him, struggling to avoid his merciless fingers. She couldn't breathe because she laughed so hard, between hiccups and tremors of laughter Hinata begged and pleaded for him to let her go.

"I'…I'm sorry…ah…Hahahahaha"

When he stopped she still couldn't stop laughing and gasped for air, at some point they had fallen from the couch and landed on the floor.

"I hope you learned you're lesson"

"H-Hai" breathless she stared up at him because he was still lying on top of her supported by his hands not to crush her.

His breathing stopped as he took in her sight, her hair was tangled on the floor and her cheeks rosy from the laughter, her full lips were slightly parted, short breaths coming on of it and her beautiful eyes looking up on him, shimmering light violet. He could feel her chest raising and lowering on his upper body, making his body react violently to her. The urge to dip his head down and kiss her was overwhelming, he wanted to do it so badly, Naruto was sure he was radiating lust.

Quickly he got up and pulled her up with him.

"I…I should make dinner" Hinata was still breathing heavily but this time it wasn't from laughing.

"I'll help you in a minute" Naruto bolted out of the room.

What the hell was he doing? What the hell was he thinking? He had wanted to kiss her and the truth was Naruto couldn't guarantee what he'd do after that. Could he have stopped there?

Why was she doing this to him? Why did he have to fall for Hinata? No falling for her was easy, almost painfully obvious; the real question was: why was his timing so bad?

She had still been in love with him about three years ago and now that she was over him, he fell for her. It was just ironic, almost like he wanted to be unhappy. He could deal with it, being in love with Hinata may be painful for him, but what he couldn't deal with was his building up desire. He was scared it would overwhelm him some time.

But boy, did Hinata have to look so irresistible? It was impossible, he racked his brain how she managed to look so innocent, sweet and perfectly cute and at the same time so damn sexy and hot, sensual. It made parts of his body arched with want and need.

And she didn't even know what she was doing to him? Shit!

…

In silence they chopped vegetables and cooked in perfect understanding and synchronization, like they had been doing it for years. Which technically they had more or less.

"Hey Hinata, how was your trip to Shino and Sai? How are they doing?"

"Oh, they are fine. Shino and Shiho are still dating happily" Hinata answered

"I can't believe bug boy has a girlfriend. How does she cope with that?" he wondered more to himself than to her.

"Naruto! Don't call Shino bug boy!" Hinata shot him a disapproving look.

"He, he, sorry Hinata" sheepishly he scratched the back of his head. "But seriously what kind of girl is Shiho? I don't think I met her"

"She used to work in the Cryptology Office of Konoha. Shino and she met when the both of them had to develop a new code of communication with the Aburame bugs and Konoha. She is really nice and bringing Shino out of his shell" Hinata smiled "She is good for him. Oh and Bee-sama told me to tell you that you better write him more. Sai is fine too. He told me to give you his regards, though I won't repeat his exact words"

Warily Naruto looked at her "Don't believe a word he said, that bastard I'll get back at him for this" he mumbled the last part in his beard, making Hinata giggle.

"Ne, Hinata I never…you know…I never apologized for yelling at you" Naruto put his knife down and turned remorseful to her.

Hinata didn't stop smiling "It's alright, I know you're sorry and besides it was my fault as well as yours"

Shocked he took a step closer "No Hinata, don't say that. It wasn't your fault at all. I wasn't thinking and I overreacted. You know I didn't mean it, right? None of the things I said was true! I'm really sorry. I'm so sorry I yelled at you, I didn't ever want to scare you like that"

She looked slightly surprised "Look Naruto, I know you're sorry and I know you didn't mean it, you're forgiven. Besides I wasn't scared of you, I was scared you never wanted to talk to me again. And as I said before it was partially my fault" she raised her hand to stop him from protesting "I should have talked to you. If you would have understood Sakura's situation we could have found a solution together. So I'm sorry as well. Let's just say we share the blame, half of it is easier to carry"

Seriously he looked at her "You're awesome, you know that?"

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**Tell me what you think, any comments, notes, critism, proposals or anything else you have to say are greatly appreciated.**


	25. Chapter 22

**I have to admit I didn't plan to upload today, but then I read the new Naruto Manga and to cheer myself up I decided to submit a new chapter today. I hope lots of other's will upload as well so that I can read many stories and forget this depressing chapter.**

**I'm going to say what the Naruhina shippers are trying to deny (and there really trying hard, some are ever good at it): Naruhina won't happen.**

**I never really believed it would happen in the manga anyway but then Kishi started progressing Hinata so much. Should have known it was too good to be true. **

**I don't think that Narusaku is canon. Becasue it is one-sided. She does not like him, however this chapter proves that he's still in love with her. That's too bad. **

**Well, I'll continue to skip Naruhina. But you know what annoys me? **

**Kishi is great at writing villains and surprising plot changes but he sucks at writing romance. Anyway Naruto isn't about romance anyway, but I just think it's hurtfull to say you like another girl knowing the one who confessed to you is standing right there. **

**I'm just depressed, but it led to an upload, didn't it?**

**Thought it's not that much Naruhina (I'm pissed at Naruto... yes I'm weird like that)**

**I don't own Naruto.**

**Please note that the rating has changed!**

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"Where the hell is that idiot? I need to leave" impatiently Sakura tapped her foot.

She was supposed to leave for Suna tonight; at least that was the plan. Everyone had already said their goodbyes to her, and the one person missing was her teammate and best male friend. She'd kill him for that if she wasn't so sad about leaving Konoha and him. Hinata had put off her departure for as long as possible and truthfully Sakura was glad it was finally time for her to go. She wanted to escape all of her memories, all of her sadness. It was symbolic for her and important that the physical move would indicate her moving on from her past love, she needed this, even if it was cowardly to run away. But Sakura wasn't doing so well in dealing with Sasuke's death.

The rhythm of her foot paced up a notch and she looked around once again. In the distance she finally caught sight of his blonde head.

Panting he stopped "Sorry Sakura-chan, I had…"

She pummeled his head before he could finish his excuse; though softer than usual "It was about time, Naruto. I would have left without saying goodbye to you"

"Don't say that Sakura-chan! I'm really sorry" he whined.

She would have been a lot madder at him but over the past weeks they had spent a healthy amount of time together and she was starting to feel like hitting him a lot more frequent. A clear indication of her increasing annoyance with Naruto.

"Good luck in Suna and please watch out a little for my sister" Hinata gave Sakura a hug.

"As if she needs that" the pink haired medic snorted.

Ino was crying ever since this morning and after Sakura had spent more than ten minutes prying her off of her, the blonde was currently holding onto Chouji clutching his arm desperately. It was actually very sweet seeing the loving and lenient look he gave his blonde girlfriend. Sakura smiled at the man and he grinned sheepishly back while patting Ino's head.

"I'm gonna miss you, even if you're an idiot" Sakura told Naruto.

He pouted "You don't have to be so mean! I even asked Gaara to take extra good care of you!"

The pinkette smiled "Thanks, baka" she pulled him into a hug.

"I'll miss you too, Sakura. Thanks for everything and make sure you write, oh and you have to come and visit or we'll visit and…"

The woman smiled and hit him over the head "You can let go of me, you crybaby"

"Hey, I take offense to that" he rubbed his head and hugged her again, a giant smile on his face.

Nothing had changed between them.

…

The dark room was only dimly light by the candle, illuminating the pale face of the infamous Snake Sanin. Everything he had planned out so carefully had turned into ashes, all because he had been stupid enough to entrust the most important task to a self-centered narcissist with a giant ego. In the end he had no one but himself to blame. The ambassador was still alive and so were the flawless relationships to every other nation.

It would take another year for such an opportunity to arrive.

Slowly his thin lips formed a sinister grimace that could have been mistaken for a smile if it had reached even halfway to his eyes. Maybe this would play out in his favor. After all another year meant another year of time to strengthen his forces and time to expand his infiltration and information system. And it also meant that after year with no action from his part the nations would not be expecting a move, they would not see coming what would inevitably hit them.

…

The next weeks had passed with a calmness and peace Naruto didn't expect. He was constantly occupied with Hokage training and if he wasn't he was spending time with his friends, mostly Hinata of course. They lived together after all, even if they didn't talk about it officially.

Piece for piece was falling back into place of his memory. Still, Naruto couldn't help but feel that he was missing something really important and it had something to do with why he never felt all that incredibly guilt for killing Sasuke since he woke up. And yet he couldn't remember it was so frustrating.

"Aren't we done yet, baa-chan?"

"Naruto" a vein on Tsunade's forehead popped, secretly she was glad that he was doing better but she would never admit openly that she missed the 'Baa-chan'.

"I told you not to call me that. This is important; from today on you will be the Rokudaime Hokage, so pay your damn attention to this. You do remember that the ceremony is taking place today, right?"

Naruto grumbled, it wasn't that he wasn't happy about finally achieving his lifelong dream but this meeting was just plain boring. And it didn't help that he was very nervous about the speech he had to hold during the ceremony.

A really important speech, a really important speech Tsunade had told him to write ages ago. A speech he had yet to write. And a speech that had to be delivered in mere minutes. Nervously he shifted his weight. He'd just improvise that's what he had told himself but looking back at it, it would have lessened his anxiety if he had.

…

"I can't believe Sakura is missing this!" Ino craned her neck.

"Is he coming out yet?" Karin asked.

"I'm sure he'll come out any moment now." Ino told her, squeezing the hand Chouji was holding in exitement.

Said man was talking to Temari and Shikamaru. The rest of Naruto's friends gathered close by.

"Whoa Hinata, aren't you nervous at all?" Kiba grinned at his friend. She smiled carefree and shrugged.

"Leave her alone, Kiba" Karui stopped petting Akamaru for a moment to scold her boyfriend, causing the dog to wince in protest. "She know he'll do fine, as do I"

Neji had his arm crossed stoically nodding along with the red head. Until Tenten was walking up to them and simply took his hand in hers. Neji didn't complain and therefore his girlfriend assumed he was fine with it.

"Oh I think it's starting. Everyone shut up" Ino squealed.

"You're the only one who's talking" Shikamaru remarked.

…

"Come on say it. I was awesome" Naruto couldn't stop bragging with his incredibly speech that ended in a gigantic party right in the middle of Konoha's streets.

"Yes we know it" Kiba rolled his eyes in annoyance "You were oh so great"

"Hey watch how you talk to your Hokage" the blond yelled at him good mannered.

The party had been going on for hours and since Naruto understood why Sakura wanted to leave not even her absence could ruin his perfect moment. He still would have preferred her to be there and he missed his former teammate but it couldn't be helped.

Hinata yawned, it was almost morning and they had celebrated the whole night. Seeing how tired Hinata was, Naruto decided they should leave "Hey Hinata, let's go home?"

In a pathetic attempt to keep her eyes open she asked "Huh, but it's your party. Do you really wanna go already?"

The newly appointed Hokage grinned "Yes or else you will fall off your chair and then you'll have to sleep on the floor"

The Hyuga woman protested "No. You should not have to leave because of me. I'll just go home and …."

"Absolutely not, we are both going home now. This is an order, I'm Hokage now, remember?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama" when she said it Naruto's heart skipped a beat. Damn did she have to sound so incredible sexy, saying that? How was that even possible, when she was on the verge of falling asleep right there and then.

"You're not going to fall asleep while walking are you?" worried Naruto glanced at Hinata. The coming morning was warm and Hinata's eyes fell down from time to time.

"Course not. I'm just a little tired, don't worry. Besides were almost there" she reassured.

Naruto was about to offer to carry her home, but …that would mean being really close to Hinata, not that that was a bad thing but he was scared it would give him away.

Hinata was asleep the second her head hit the pillow, for Naruto however it wasn't that easy. The day had been really exiting for him and ever since his fight with Sasuke the time before he slept and after he woke up was the time parts of his memories would return. Restlessly he rolled over to face the window.

…

Hanabi sighed, she had planned to go to the swimming bath today, and she even wore her bikini underneath her clothes and for what?

She had barely been able to gulp down lunch in half an hour. Ever since Sakura had arrived a million things had to be done. Obviously they had now thought about some details that had to be resolved now when she was here.

Apart from that things didn't go as smoothly as she had hoped with Sakura being here. And it was all Kankuro's fault.

Hanabi hadn't been there personally but from what she could later figure out, Kankuro who was supposed to pick up Sakura from the gate had made some of his infamous, not so unusual, inappropriate comment about the size of Sakura's breasts which had set the pinkette off and …well the rest is history.

Kankuro had been hospitalized still muttering about a crazy, flat chested vixen and Sakura had punched a hole in a wall. And ever since then they were at each other throats when they smelled each other from a mile away.

Worst part of her day was that she didn't even get to see Gaara and her chance of going to the pool was gone since it was in the middle of the night. And ever since things had gotten so hectic, hers and Gaara's cookie meetings had stopped. – And there she went again, thinking about him.

The brunette groaned, her chestnut hair fanning out on her arm and spilling over to on the table. How could she fall for the KAZEKAGE? It was stupid, wrong and most of all hopeless. Completely and utterly hopeless, he was the village's leader! The leader of Suna! She was an idiot, like Gaara would ever feel the same for her.

"Is everything alright?" the red head that haunted her every thought was leaning casually against the doorframe.

Hanabi's face rivaled his hair within an instant and her head shot up from the position on the desk.

"N-No-Nothing" - damn it she was turning into Hinata - "Are…" _Get a grip Hanabi _"Aren't you busy?"

Gaara smiled "I'm finished for today. Sakura is safe and sound in her apartment and Kankuro is still alive. I thought you wanted to go swimming?" He raised an eyebrow at her packed bag that was on the floor untouched.

After hearing her heartwarming story about how mean work kept her from her well-deserved bath, the Gaara smiled ."I have a surprise for you"

Hanabi looked up at him quizzically.

"Get your bathing stuff!" it sounded more like an order than a request but Hanabi knew what he meant.

"You do realize that it is in the middle of the night? The water is freezing" Hanabi had no idea what Gaara was planning but being where they were in front of the door of the swimming bath did give her a certain idea.

"Just wait and see and get ready" Gaara smiled.

A few minutes later Gaara was starting to regret his decision. He was waiting in front of the changing area for Hanabi, knowing she would come out any moment now in a BIKINI. Meaning she was wearing fewer clothes than ever and even with clothes on she was…His thoughts got interrupted.

"Stop spacing out, it is really cold" the brunette warmed her shivering body by rubbing her hands over her arms.

To prevent further embarrassment Gaara turned around before giving her a second glance. Who knew where his eyes might end up?

Hanabi's heart had skipped so many beats, she was afraid it might cause a stroke. _Don't stare at him; don't stare at him, _repeating this Hanabi did her best not to stare too obviously.

Seriously he was just too hot. Gaara was muscular but not bulky. His shoulders, back and chest were incredibly wide, formed from caring the heavy gourd around all the time. And his arms were so strong and…oh boy why couldn't she stop staring?

"Gaara the water is cold by now. You don't even like warm water, hell you don't like water at all" Hanabi still didn't understand what the Kazekage was planning.

"I know but I had a little chat with Kankuro and he said it was possible to preserve the warm water inside a smaller pool, you said you would like to watch the night sky" he explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Hanabi stopped dead in her tracks. Gaara did that for her? She only mentioned it once in the many conversations they had, yet he remembered. Her heart was beating faster, why would he do that? Maybe there was a chance he liked her too?

No, that couldn't be it. He was the Kazekage; every second woman in this village would die for a date with him. There was no reason for him to fall for her, she was plain and boring and her eyes were weird. It was hopeless…yes she was definitely turning into Hinata.

"You don't like it?" when Hanabi stopped following him Gaara had turned around to find Hanabi spaced out.

He couldn't exactly complain tough, it gave him the chance to cast a quick glance over her fine figure. The quick glance turned out rather long in the end. Her simple silver bikini with straps crossed over her back emphasized her moon-like eyes. And Gaara certainly knew by now why he was glad that her clothes hid her body from prying eyes. When he thought about all the times she went to this swimming bath looking like that it made him want to rip every male's eyes out. He was so gonna have a talk with Kankuro.

"NO, I love it, thank you very much" Hanabi sent a radiating smile to him.

They reached the small pool; well it was more like a Jacuzzi, designed for about four people. Small but not small enough for their bodies to touch

"Wow it's so warm" Hanabi let herself sink in deep.

"It is quite pleasantly" Gaara agreed, a little surprised.

"It's good for your back, right?" Hanabi send him a pointed glance, she had been bugging him for weeks to allow her to massage it.

Ignoring her remark he sank in the water opposed from her.

"Are you ignoring me?" still not getting an answer she grinned to herself.

If he didn't want to listen, than she was forced to take the hard way, it was fine with her but he would not like it. She splashed a handful of water at his face taking him by surprise.

"Did you just splash me?" Gaara asked in disbelief

"Depends…did you ignore me?" She splashed him again.

"This is a warning Hanabi. Stop splashing" had he said something like that when he was a child, people would have run like hell. Hanabi instead just grinned smugly.

"Why? Does it annoy you? Don't tell me, you're afraid of a little water" she kept pouring water down at him. "What's wrong? I bet you'd really want to splash me, but I'm a girl and you wouldn't want to make me cry"

"I do not splash people because I'm the Kazekage. The Kazekage does not splash people"

The woman opposed of him started to laugh and with a snicker sent a really large wave on his wave.

When she didn't stop her splashing, Gaara lunged at her. Within seconds he held her hands down behind her back, holding her closer to him. Both of them were tripping wet. And drops from his deep red hair were falling down on her. He barely realized how close they were, so close he could feel her shallow breaths on his neck, all Gaara could do was looking at her eyes.

They were wide and directed solely on him. They did not reflect anything but the pureness of the silver light of the moon. Damn those eyes. They haunted his dreams, he loved them. He loved how pure her silver eyes were. And he loved how they gazed and him and at him only.

Slowly, almost sensually Gaara let his eyes drop to her lips, slightly parted, glittering with wetness and daring him to dip his head. Following his desires he gave in, he released her hands, his arms sneaking around her waist pulling her even closer.

When their lips touched, Hanabi's arms found her way around his neck. Her soft lips met his with the same desire he felt inside of him.

Together they sank back down not breaking the contact their lips sought so desperately. Hanabi straddled him as her hands were running through his crimson hair, deepening their kiss. Gaara let his hands run over her back, pulling her closer to him. When they parted, they parted only enough to look each other in the eyes.

It took Hanabi a little to get her breathing under control "I…Gaara…" Hanabi wasn't sure what she wanted to tell him.

"Yes?" he raised an invisible eyebrow, seeming a lot calmer than she and a little calmer then he actually was.

"I don't know…" she laughed nervously and rested his forehead against his.

"What does this mean, Hanabi?" she knew what he wanted to ask.

"I don't know…I mean…I know what I feel but…" Why was it so damn hard to shape a coherent sentence? She wondered as she stumbled over her words.

"What **do** you feel?" for a second she could feel the uncertainty resonating in his voice.

"I like you"

His lips were back on hers not a second later. The blood was pulsing through his ears and the way her body was flushed against his made it run to lower regions faster than before. Hanabi's hand ran over his neck and buried them into his crimson hair once again.

When Gaara bit her lower lip she reacted to him immediately and let his tongue invade her mouth.

Closer, he needed her closer! The only thought that ran through his head was that he needed her closer, much closer.

Hanabi kissed him back with all she had; her hands assumed a separate existence and somehow ended up going down from his neck over his muscular back.

Gaara growled in appreciation and the need in him got worse. Roughly one of his hands found a way in her hair and he forced her head back so he had better access to the sweet flesh on her jawline and neck.

The young woman let out a pleasant cry when she felt him leaving his marks on her body. She arched her back when his other hand slide from her waist down her leg and she almost lost it when his hand went back up. Not back to her waist but past it, caressing her stomach and further up over her silver bikini.

The Kazekage snarled when he felt the softness of Hanabi's skin getting interrupted by the material of her bikini. Without a second thought he snapped the interfering clothing in two.

Hanabi sucked air in with a sharp tone when cold air hit her now exposed front. Her hands once again tangled into Gaara's red hair, clenching onto them desperately.

Gaara did not actually want his lips to leave her skin but the temptation of looking at her bare skin was too much to take. He pried his lips from her body and with another rather hard tug on her hair she bend her back further allowing his eyes to travel down her form. Damn it she was so hot!

Fascinated he watched a cold water droplet gliding down from her neck. When it had reached her collarbone Gaara couldn't stop his finger from tracing the previous line of goose bumps the water had left. He felt her body shiver under his touch and it send an exited jolt through his body.

He kept tracing the line of the drop until his calloused finger reached the valley of her breasts. His interest got caught by the change of her pink nipple. It had perked up when he got closer to it. It wasn't the only thing that had him drawn to it. It was also that they looked quiet irresistible and it only added to the fact that she made those sexy moans from the back of her throat.

Hanabi's eyes rolled to the back of her head when she felt his warm hand getting closer to her much too cold chest bringing all of his warmth with them.

"Ah" pleasure shook her body when his finger finally reached that spot.

Suddenly her whole chest was pleasantly warm again and it took her a moment to realize it was because he had brought her body closer to his again.

Quickly her mouth found his again and she got lost in the feeling of his demanding lips on hers.

Gaara lifted her light body up, her legs still entangled around his waist and their lips still locked in a wild kiss. He brought her to the edge of the pool and laid her on her back, so that he leaned over her body.

Her hands on his body made him insane and she still wasn't close enough!

As his hands started their very own exploration of her body he left butterfly kisses on her jaw and neck, she really did taste like chocolate.

"W-Wait" Hanabi uttered out in between moans.

Ignoring her protest his lips went straight to her collar bone, silencing her for a second.

Shit she really needed to get it together. If Hanabi didn't stop him now, she would never be able to. The only problem was she really didn't **want** him to stop; it was the exact opposite she did not want him to stop in the least.

"Ah!" again a sweet wave of pleasure ran over her bod, threatening to take her away this time.

"G-Gaara wait" this time she said it with more determination and to emphasize her words she gave him a very light push away from her.

Not enough to lose their connection just enough so that he could look at her.

"What!?" his head snapped up and he looked somewhat mad.

Most people would have called the look on his face terrifying but Hanabi was not most people and to her he looked like a little kid that just got denied his favorite sweet.

The Hyuga woman tried to catch her breath "We - can't – do - that" she finally pressed out between gasps.

"And why would that be?" Gaara was trying really hard not to show his anger and control the murderous screaming of his body, demanding to get closer contact with her again.

It didn't help matters that she looked breathtaking underneath him and now she had the guts to smile! Unbelievable, he was dying from want and she smiled innocently lying half naked under his body.

"Answer me damn it" he demanded.

Now she broke into a full-fledged grin "We can't do it unless you are hiding a condom in your shorts"

That actually got him to think and stop "You're not on birth control?"

"Of course not, I never…I mean I didn't need to be. Usually I don't get into situations like that. But trust me starting tomorrow…" she felt her cheeks getting rather hot.

The Kazekage sighed not sure if he should be happy no one ever touched her like he just did or disappointed about the stop the question of birth control put to their activity "And what now?"

"How about buying condoms and relocate at your place?" she suggested shyly, definitely not wanting to stop.

His turquois eyes captured hers, as if reaffirming she indeed said that she really wanted to continue.

"I can't, I'm the Kazekage I can't go around the villages buying stuff like that. You know what will happen? By tomorrow the whole village will know about it" he explained calmer now.

"Well, how did you manage up until now?" Hanabi wondered aloud.

"I didn't" was his simple reply

"Oh" she felt silent again "We could always ask your brother. I'm sure he parades around with dozens of it"

Gaara looked like she just lost her mind "I rather drop dead!"

Hanabi gave him a quick peek on the lips "Well, that's too bad"

Darkly he looked down at her, getting exactly what she was doing "This won't work on me, Hanabi"

Defeated she sighed "Alright, but can we at least get up" she blushed a little "It's getting a bit cold"

Regarding the position they were in and the amount of clothes she was wearing that was no surprise.

With a sly grin Gaara pulled Hanabi close to his body, so she was warm and then got up.

"Maybe we should get dressed" the brunette suggested innocently.

Gaara glowered at her "Fine you win! I'll get that condom"

* * *

**Tell me what you think, any comments, notes, critism, proposals or anything else you have to say are greatly appreciated.**


	26. Chapter 23

**First of all I'd like to thank all of you. I got a lot of response for the last chapter. Special thanks to those who tried to cheer me up after the horrible Naruto chapter last week.**

**Just one thing. I'm not giving up on Naruhina nor do I plan to any time in the future. All I wanted to say last time is that I don't think it'll happen in the manga. But I don't think Naruto and Sakura will happen either. I think there won't be any pairings at all.**

**I was only depressed because it is clear now that Naruto still has feelings for Sakura, that is all and I was pissed at him because he said that with Hinata right there. That was all.**

**Anyway I got a lot of reviews telling me that it is getting frustrating to wait for Naruto and Hinata to finally figure it ou, but I have this planned out, so wait just a bit longer. I promise it won't take too long anymore. Matter of factly I'd might want to wait for the chapter after this one... :)**

**Also with this chapter I will upload the last preface and with next chapter I'll put all the small prefaces into one, so then there will only be three. Naruhina, Gaara and Hanabi, and all other couples. Since once someone told me that many prefaces were a little turnoff :)**

**I don't own Naruto.**

**All my thanks go out to Writer's Convexity for editing this chapter. Thank you so much.**

* * *

The sunlight was shining warmly on him, promising him a bright sunny day starting from the moment he got himself out of the warm comfort of his bed, however the tall blond couldn't care less about the sunshine. It was hard to tell if the even realized the rays of light that were shining down on him.

The finally piece of his memory had returned, he had woken up this morning when the event of that time crashed down on him with their full consequences. He remembered everything, he remembered how he killed his best friend and he remembered his own despair and guilt at what he had done, but more importantly he remembered every word Hinata had said to him that night, every move she made and every feeling rushing over him. It all made sense now.

**She** was the reason he didn't hate himself, **she** was the reason he didn't feel as guilty as he should feel, it was all because of **her.**

Even after he had been such a complete and utter idiot to her, she had still been there for him when he needed her most.

After he had assimilated that information, he had been ecstatic at first. She still loved him. Hinata loved him. She still did after all that time he hadn't screwed up. He still had a chance. Now he could ask her out, they would be a real couple, they would kiss and hug and embrace each other and…

The more he thought about it the more excited he got. But at some point his thought had turned on him and the deeper he had let those thoughts invade him the more scared he had gotten.

And by now he was just lying in his bed petrified and unable to move. The thoughts and feelings weighting him down and depressing him more and more and all he could do was staring blankly at the ceiling.

A soft knock on his door finally made him snap out of his stupor.

"Naruto?" Hinata's soft voice trailed to his ears from behind the door.

"Yes I'm awake! I'll be there in a minute" he shot up and tried to ignore how panickyhis voice had sounded.

Naruto scolded himself to get a grip and to pretend nothing happened. He still needed more time to think this over and he couldn't let her know about his feelings. He had to weigh out the risks first.

"Wow the breakfast looks great, Hinata," after a refreshing shower Naruto sat down at the full table, the smile on his face barely reached his eyes.

"Well, I wanted you to have a good start to your fist day, Hokage-sama," the Hyuga woman sat down opposed to him. She smiled but after looking more closely at him, her face altered to a frown "Are you ok? You look down."

Inside Naruto sighed, of course he couldn't hide it from Hinata; he never could hide anything from her.

"I'm fine just nervous," he lied and Naruto was a bad liar.

Hinata decided that if he didn't want to talk about she would wait.

…

"You are the most disgusting person in the world Kankuro!" Sakura could barely control her anger. She had never met a person who managed to make her more furious.

"What the hell did I do this time, Sakura?" the puppet master turned annoyed.

"I can't believe there are women out there who would sleep with you willingly," Sakura shuddered at the bare thought.

"Jealous that I wouldn't even touch YOU if you were the last woman on earth?" he mocked her.

"Like I would let you," a vein popped on her forehead. This guy really knew how to push her buttons.

Just a moment ago she had had to witness another one of his "victims" crying because he shot her down after sleeping with her.

"I still can't believe Gaara made YOU my guide. He probably assumed you would be grateful because I saved your sorry ass."

"Oh please that was ages ago! Besides trust me I would have preferred getting saved by a smoking hot nurse too, not by a flat chested bitch."

Sakura put as much force in her punch as she could but Kankuro had expected something like that for some time now and dodged it while already leaving the pinkette standing in the dust.

He really didn't mean to make her angry, at least not that much, but last night had just been so damn frustrating. He had had this really hot chick and she was nuts for him and as always they had ended up in his room. Then when things had started to get heated and Kankuro had reached out in his drawer…only to realize it was empty.

He couldn't for the life of him figure out what had happened to his condoms, he was a hundred percent sure that he had an almost new package. But just where did it go?

And the puppet master couldn't imagine someone stealing them. Who would steal condoms from his drawer? More importantly who could steal condoms from his drawer and have access to his room? He lived with Gaara after all, security was insanely high. No matter how he thought about it, he came up empty.

Oh shit, the pink banshee was a lot faster than he had anticipated.

…

Gaara looked down at the sleeping form of Hanabi Hyuga. What happened between them two weeks ago and all the following days still seemed unreal to him. He'd never thought that a relationship like that was possible for him, but Hanabi proved him wrong.

Gaara knew that he cared deeply for Hanabi; he was in love with her. It amazed him that he was able to feel so deeply for someone and it was even more amazing that she reciprocated his feelings. It was funny how he never even doubted her feelings for a second; Gaara was aware of his trust issues. And he'd assumed that sooner or later they'd become a problem for their relationship, but he didn't have any reason not to trust her completely.

Because Hanabi trusted him completely as well, she made him feel like secure and unafraid of pursuing a deeper connection with her. He'd never experienced something like that before. It also put him at ease that she never had an experience like this either. He was the first to ever make her feel this way and it made him proud.

He doubted that he deserved her. One of the reasons why he had accepted the position as Kazekage was because he had felt like he owed it to the village that suffered so much under him. By now he loved his village and his position, wanting to make sure everyone was safe, but initially it had been an obligation.

This was not the case that with Hanabi, he didn't owe her anything and she didn't owe anything to him. Absently he ran his hand through her auburn hair, admiring his soft texture.

Hanabi didn't know much about what and who he used to be, she didn't know of all the horrors he had done.

Would she leave him if she knew? The thought scared him to no end.

Gaara was sure she knew about his past as Jinchuuriki but it didn't mean she actually knew what he did and who he used to be. Sometimes he still felt the guilt when he thought about the wrath he used to feel, all his hatred he let out on this village, and all the lives he took. No, he didn't deserve her. Hanabi was too innocent and pure and sweet and she was basically all the things he was not. Despite all he once did, Hanabi trusted him without a second though and despite the fact that he did not deserve her, he wanted to keep her at all costs.

Gaara didn't even trust himself that much. He was still cautious about sleep. Sixteen years of complete sleep deprivation had left its marks. The only time he was able to sleep deep and peacefully was when Hanabi was next to him. Without Shukaku there was no logical reason to fear sleep but old habits die hard.

"Let it go, Gaara. You have to forgive yourself" Hanabi's silver eyes looked up at him gently.

Gaara didn't even ask how long she had been awake or how she knew what he was thinking about, for she always seemed to know.

"You don't know what I did. Who I used to be," he said not stopping his hand from caressing her skin.

Hanabi pulled the blanket closer to keep out the cold and snuggled closer to Gaara.

"You would be surprised," she told him simply.

"What do you mean?"

Hanabi smiled, "You don't think I came to Suna as an ambassador without knowing who I was going to work with. In negotiations it is vital to know you counterpart. How do you think Hinata and I were able to change our clan?

We had to gather information about every member of the family, find out every strength and every weakness, what they liked what they dislike, every piece of their past. We had to figure out how to talk to them, how to behave around them.

When I was assigned to Suna I did just that, about the other ambassadors, about the council members and about you."

Gaara smiled sadly "It's not the same, you weren't there. You don't know what I did. You didn't see it."

"Gaara, we all have things in our lives we regret. Actions we wish we never had done."

She saw the unasked question in his eyes. What did she do that she regretted?

"When I was younger I was a real bitch. I was spoiled and basically I was a stuck-up brat, who didn't care about anyone but me. I was so mean to Hinata back then. Everyone always treated me like a princess so I felt like I was better than all of them. I was such a horrible person. Hinata was the one who always received the bitter end of me. She never did anything to me but I was nasty to her all the time. I said things to her that make me sick now and when we had to spar I hurt her a lot.

Instead of turning away from me, she was understanding and nice and sweet and it made me feel bad, so I was even worse to her. I was main family and therefore better than anyone else and Hinata…. Well she was weak so I thought it was alright to be mean to her. I thought she didn't deserve to be a Hyuga, much less part of the main family - Neji was the one to set me straight.

After his fight with Naruto at the Chunin exams he started to change and I kind of tagged along. Looking back I still feel terrible about what I did, but Hinata forgave me and I realized that feeling guilty about it did not make anything better," her smile had vanished from her face as she talked.

"In the end we all made mistakes in the past, but the past is not what matters, what matters is the present and the future."

His sea green eyes looked at her pale ones, "You didn't kill anyone, though. I terrorized everyone, I killed and what that is something I can never make up again. You can't call that a simple mistake."

Her fingers traced over his kanji symbol gently, "I know, Gaara, but you have to forgive yourself for what you did. You cannot give back their lives but you did whatever you could to repay this village for your past mistakes."

Your mistakes, the things you regret… they are a part of you; they made you who you are now. Our mistakes, no matter how badly we regret them, they make us who we are and they'll make us who we will be.

Your mistakes made you to the person you are now and I would not want to change a single thing about you. You have to find it in yourself, accept your mistakes as a part of you, it doesn't mean you don't regret them it just means you have accepted them and can move on," her eyes locked with his only a breath away from him.

For minutes there was nothing but silence. The Kazekage let the words sink in; in awe he looked at the woman lying next to him, wrapped in his white sheets, vulnerable as she was, yet completely trusting him.

"Thank you Hanabi."

She smiled at him before she leaned in and kissed him softly.

"Now get back to sleep, you need it" he told her.

"Mmh what if I have a better idea?" she let her fingers trace his abs slowly making his insides burn with want and need.

"How are you doing this?" he pushed her under him and growled in her ear.

…

"I already hate this!" Neji crossed his arms, emphasizing just how much he disagreed with it.

"Oh come on Neji, this is going to be fun!" Tenten tried to convince him, not so sure about this herself.

At first it had sounded ok. A double date with Shikamaru and Temari wasn't that bad, right? Shikamaru would probably be half asleep and would leave Neji alone and so the girls could talk. There was only one slight problem…it wasn't a double date anymore.

First Lee had go a whiff of this and faster than lightning invited him and Karin along. But well there were used to Lee anyway and Karin was usually really cool…if not combined with Lee.

But to make matters worse the red head had decided to invite Karui and Kiba. And when those two were involved somehow things always ended dirty to say in the least.

And as if that wasn't enough, after Ino heard she had declared that they would come too because they would not be left out, Choji didn't say anything though.

…

"This is so troublesome. Can't we just stay in and watch a movie tonight?"

"No, we did that yesterday. Tonight is going to be fun!" Temari told her boyfriend while applying make-up.

"Why are you getting so dressed up anyway, we'll just have dinner."

The pretty blonde stopped for just a second, "Yeah….about that…" she stretched the words.

The man with the ponytail looked up alarmed, "We are just going to have dinner, right?"

…

"I'm so excited Lee-kun," Karin was dancing along to the loud music.

Lee joined her and twirled her around exclaiming happily, "Me too, Karin-chan! And I'm so glad Ino suggested we try out the new club that just opened in Konoha instead of going to dinner!"

That being the reason they were practicing dancing in the house - well not the only one but it was why they did it today - it was a warm up for the dancing tonight.

"We are not going to lose to Neji and Tenten!"

…Not at dancing anyway…

…

"Kiba were going to be late," Karui warned her canine boyfriend. She had opened her door for him and instantly she had realized the look on his face.

"Yeah I know. But trust me it is going to be worth it," he pushed her in softly and next thing you know there in her bed with significantly less clothes than before.

…

"So, we won't eat?" disappointed Choji sank down on Ino's chair as the blonde tried on what felt like her fifth outfit.

"No" she answered as she exited her room again.

This time she wore a light blue strapless dress that fell in waves down to the middle of her thighs. "What do you think?"

Chouji was still sulking and his head moved up only slowly, his mouth was hanging open when he looked at his gorgeous girlfriend.

"Perfect! Just the reaction I was hoping for" Ino smiled satisfied. "Now, I got some pizza for you," she kissed him delighted.

Choji could only wonder if he would have gotten the pizza without his 'perfect' reaction.

…

"Hey Hinata!" Naruto yelled, "Karin came to the office today and invited us to go out tonight with pretty much everyone else. You wanna?"

The bluenette asked in return, "Do you want to go?"

Naruto knew what she was playing at, first Sasuke's death, though he was dealing better with it, and for the past week he had been behaving weird around her. But what else was he supposed to do?

Every part of him screamed to get closer to her but the fear in his mind just wouldn't back down. So he was tense and jumpy when she was around. Worst part was how he could see that he was hurting her with his strange attitude but he couldn't help it. Hopefully a night out would help him cool off.

Considering all this Naruto nodded, "Yeah, why not?!"

Hinata signaled him that she was in as well. The heiress wasn't sure that it was a good idea; maybe she should try to talk to him about what was bothering him. She was terrified that he had remembered everything she had told him the night Sasuke had died. It was the only logical explanation as to why he was avoiding her as much as possible. If he knew she was still in love with him, it was probably weird and uncomfortable to be with her. Hinata suppressed the hot tears, she really wasn't in the mood to go out.

…

Half an hour later the doorbell rang. Hinata opened followed closely by Naruto who naively assumed they would be leaving the next instance.

"Oh no, not like that Hinata. Not tonight!" Ino said after taking in Hinata's outfit which consisted of jeans and a nice deep blue shirt.

Naruto could not find anything wrong with it, to him Hinata looked absolutely stunning but Ino appeared to disagree strongly. She dragged Hinata back into her room by the wrist, ignoring Hinata's remarks about how she liked her outfit. With a sign Naruto turned to the others that were dropping into the apartment.

"So you want something to drink?"

Neji's brows furrowed dangerously, "You know Naruto you sure a behaving a lot like you live here and come to think of it you do spend a lot of time here. In fact you are constantly here now that I think about it."

Naruto shifted uncomfortably under the huge amount of pair of eyes directed at him. It was true officially he didn't live here; it wasn't like he moved in with her. And he still had his own apartment plus neither he nor Hinata had felt obligated to tell anyone of their… 'unclear living arrangement'.

"Ah well you see Neji, the food here is really good and Hinata lets me…" before he could keep on blabbing nonsense he was saved by Ino.

The tall blonde woman huffed in frustration, Hinata outright refused a dress and Ino could not get her to get rid of the jeans. According to Hinata, she was very happy in this outfit and was unwilling to trade it for something that made her feel uncomfortable. Even when Ino remarked that a certain blond might notice her more if she'd dressed up, but that was apparently the very wrong approach, since Hinata closed up totally after that.

At least now she wore a sexy silver tank top that went down over her buttock accenting every curve she had. It was the best Ino could do.

…

There was only word that Naruto found fitting to describe this evening: 'torture'.

He was perfectly able to control himself around Hinata when he could only imagine what she was hiding beneath those ridiculous lose fitting layers of fabric… Well more or less perfectly but still he hadn't ravished her until now that had to count for something, right?

Every day until now had been hell but how could he possibly survive this night?

Naruto had lost count of how many times he had thought about Hinata and decided she couldn't become any more appealing to him and every damn time he got proven wrong. The Jinchuurikigrabbed his glass tighter until he almost felt it crumble. The way he had fantasized about her body did not do her justice. Naruto had felt like he lost the ability of speech when he had seen her after Ino was done with her, using all of his fast vanishing will power he had tried his hardest not to look at her.

Sadly he had ended up ignoring her and, boy, he was not happy with it. If another idiot tried to touch Hinata again, he was going to explode. This one guy had really pushed his buttons. He had just walked up to **his** Hinata and then he had asked her if it was true that all the Hyuga women were incredibly bendy. It was like the jerk asked to be punched in the face. Before Hinata could answer Naruto had already stepped in front of her and took care of the problem. Not violently, even if he had really wanted to, but the look in his eyes must have made the guy pee his pants and he took off at full speed.

The Hyuga girl on the other hand was not having a great night either. First Ino dragged her off and forced her to wear something that felt like second skin making Hinata feel very self-conscious and then Naruto didn't talk to her for the whole evening. She felt miserable, Naruto had been acting strange all week, first she had assumed it was because of Sasuke but the more time went by the surer she became that it wasn't.

By now she just knew it had something to do with her and judging by his reaction to her it wasn't anything good. And she was almost a hundred percent sure that it was because he remembered.

The fear she had tried to ignore over the past weeks resurfaced worse than ever.

"Hinata will you at least try to fake a smile?" Karin asked in a desperate attempt to get Hinata to cheer up.

"Huh? Oh sorry, I'm just not feeling so well. I think I should go home."

Karui rolled her eyes at her, "Come on, Hinata you haven't danced all night. I'm not letting you go until you give one of the guys that stare at you with their tongues rolled out a chance!"

"She's right. Why don't you give one of them a chance? You shot down at least ten of them tonight, not counting the ones who were too terrified to approach you because Neji is glaring daggers at them."

"No I really just want to go!" Hinata insisted.

Finally Tenten intertwined, "Let her go girls. If she's not feeling like it, then she's not. We can always try another time"

She found a grateful look from Hinata sent her way.

…

When she fought her way to the exit Hinata debated with herself if she should tell Naruto she was leaving or not. He obviously didn't want to talk to her and if he was having a blast she didn't want to spoil his fun. Still…she could just let him know.

A second before she turned around a strong hand was put on her shoulder. She whirled around but relaxed when she looked into sky blue eyes; eyes that were showing his confusion.

"You didn't plan on leaving without telling me, were you?"

She smiled and shook her head,

"I was just about to look for you."

* * *

**Any thoughts, suggestions, notes, critism and whatever you have to say are welcomed and appreciated.**


	27. Chapter 24

**Thanks a lot for reviewing.**

**I'm sorry that so many of you are getting impatient with the development between Naruto and Hinata.**

**I don't own Naruto.**

**Thanks so much Writer's Convexity for helping me yet again with the chapter.**

* * *

**-24-**

"Wha…?" Hanabi cracked one eyes open in confusion, her voice still heavy from sleep. Her head was resting on Gaara's arm and she snuggled her face deeper in his warm broad chest.

"Morning" Gaara smirked down at the sleepyhead, her hair was sprawled out all over his bicep and her skin felt soft against his own. He would never get enough of waking up next to her.

"YOU IMMATURE, INDOLENCE JERK!"

That was what had woken her up in the first place,

"What happened? Who's screaming?" her head rose from its position and she rubbed her eyes.

Gaara sighed, "I'm not sure. Some woman screaming at Kankuro but she sure is loud."

"DON'T YOU DARE, PUPPET-FREAK!"

Gaara cringed, "Really loud. Stay here I'll take care of it."

He slipped out of bed and in his pants, after throwing on some random shirt he left the room in a rather bad mood. Kankuro would get it for waking Hanabi and making him leave the bed before he absolutely had to. Now that he loved his bed and finally found the perfect use for it!

…

"Look, would you just shut up. There are other people living here too," the annoyed Kankuro shielded his ears.

Who the hell did this woman think she was? No matter how often she saved his life she was still a nuisance.

"Are you coming back to bed, baby?" a raven haired girl appeared in the doorframe and attached herself onto his arm "Who is this loud, crazy woman?"

"I'll give you loud and crazy" Sakura raised her fist. Her body shock with anger and the reason she came here in the first place long forgotten.

..

"Just what the hell is going on in here?" Gaara slammed the door open his sand swirling around dangerously. Green eyes took in the scene before him with a glint of danger in them.

"Ask the crazy woman. She turned up here, while all the normal people are sleeping, screaming like some siren Kankuro shrugged. Unlike Gaara he was dressed only in his boxers, not caring about etiquette at all.

"I did not…" …" Sakura defended herself but before she could even start, Gaara already intercepted.

"I don't care. You will all keep it down or else I'll come for you," the Kazekage turned away with one last glare at everyone.

"Go back to bed, honey. I'll be there in a bit" Kankuro slapped the brunette's ass as she turned around making her giggle and Sakura gag. She hadn't even been aware that a guy's voice could turn so sickening sweet.

"Let me guess you're calling all of them honey, so that you don't have to remember their names?" Sakura leaned her slender body against the kitchen counter.

"Jealous much?" Kankuro gave her a look up and down. "You know your chest is kind of small but if you need it that desperately I going to do you a favo…"

He didn't get further because Sakura tried to introduce him to her fist once again. Kankuro ducked just in time, leaving Sakura to punch a hole in the wall

"If Gaara kills you don't blame me!" he yelled while exiting the kitchen at a rather fast pace.

…

When Gaara came back he found Hanabi already dressed and ready to leave. Alright NOW he would kill his brother for sure.

"Sorry Gaara, I have to go. Sakura and I have to go over the schedule and plan ahead together with the rest of the hospital and after that we have a meeting with the academy. Sakura said she'd be willing to teach some medic, oh and later…" seeing the look in Gaara's eyes she sighed and pressed a sweet kiss on his lips, "I promise I try to make it quick and besides I want to see you as soon as possible too. And don't forget you still have work to do as well."

She smiled up at him, "How about I'll make you dinner at my place?" she whispered to him, standing at her toe.

"Fine, but you better make some muffins too"

…

During dinner Hinata had glanced at her 'roommate' at least ten times. The dishes were done by now and she couldn't hold it in any longer. It was eating her up, especially since the awkward walk home yesterday and the heavy silence for the rest of the following day

"Look Naruto, I know that something is worrying you. This has been going on for weeks now and whatever it is you can talk to me about anything. Is it about me? You have been avoiding me for the last week. If you want to move back to your flat that's fine, I won't be mad" she kept her voice steady, but on the inside the fear was eating her up. If he remembered that she told him she still loved him, then maybe their friendship was over.

He looked up with an expression of utter shock on his face "NO, that's not it. It…It's nothing," he cringed on the inside because even to him it had sounded fake, but what was he supposed to do?

Hinata sighed, that had been his answer every time she asked him and truly seeing him strangely depressed like that was wearing on her nerves. Normally she didn't pressure him, believing he would come to her if he had something to say but this time just was different. His sparkling blue eyes had become clouded with worry and she felt like his smiles had lost a bit of their incredible radiance.

"Naruto, please talk to me. I can tell something is wrong and whatever it is, I want to help you. Talking can help too, you know?"

Naruto knew from experience that she was right, talking to her always helped him figure out his problems, but he couldn't possibly talk to her about that topic.

Or could he?

She looked so desperate and helpless and it was his fault. He didn't want her to feel bad because he was such an idiot. Her grey eyes shimmered in the dim light the setting sun was sending their way. She had tucked a strand of her beautiful dark blue hair behind her ear. Hinata looked absolutely breathtaking to him, especially because she was in her 'home and comfy clothes', consisting of grey sweatpants and the awesome orange shirt he had given her on her birthday.

"It's complicated and …honestly I just don't know what to do." Seeing his expression, Hinata's heart sank. It was the one thing she had been afraid of the most. And here she had thought it was about her second confession when the truth was a lot worse. He fell in love with somebody, he was in love and it wasn't her and even if it killed her, she would help him.

While Naruto was looking out the window in thoughts, Hinata took this time to close her eyes in order brace herself for what was coming. She locked out all of her feelings, all of her suspicions of who it might be, who the woman he loved could be. This wasn't about her, this was only about him and he deserved to be happy. So her feelings for him, her jealousy for the woman who had captured his heart had no place now. She could cry and breakdown later and she could figure out who the woman was later, not now. Not when he needed someone to talk to, not when he needed her.

"So it's a woman?"

"Yeah, it is" Naruto answered slowly

"And you like her" Hinata stated further

"No, I love her. Like really love her, you know. I love her so much it kills me not to be with her, I love everything about her, how she laughs, how she makes me laugh…I…I never felt this way before about anyone. I want to be with her all the time and make her happy and see her smile; I want to spend the rest of my life with her.

I…she has no idea what she does to me, she's so sweet and cute and loving and caring, she all the things my life ever missed and she's driving me crazy. She has no idea how perfect she is and how beautiful," he clenched his fists as he was searching for a way to express the feelings he held.

I want to be with her all the time. Sometimes I feel like I can't hold back any longer. Sometimes I just want to kiss her until she tells me she loves me over and over again. Fuck, sometimes I just want to grab her and fucking do her right where we are. I love her, I'm crazy for her"

No matter how much she braced herself, the pain inside Hinata's heart was unbearable but she forced it down. She was going to break down later; it was not what he needed now. And it didn't matter that he never mentioned this woman before. And it didn't matter that Hinata didn't knew him as well as she thought she did because she didn't even knew such a woman existed in his life.

"Have you told her?" it sounded more forced that she would have liked but he didn't seem to notice. Naruto shook his head silently

"Why not? Are you scared she won't feel the same way about you?"

Again Naruto shook his head "No, that is not it...In fact I know she feels the same way about me"

Surprised Hinata raised an eyebrow "Then what is keeping you?"

"I can't lose her," he stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I don't understand, Naruto," Hinata sat down confused.

"I mean I can't lose her. If I told her she would say yes and then we would go out, start a relationship but what will happen if I will screw this up? I'm an idiot, I'm dense and slow and I always make a mistake at some point.

What if I screw up our relationship, what if screw up so badly that I lose her. What if she will leave me. I can't deal with that," Naruto asked desperately, making Hinata's heart go out to him.

"Naruto, what are you talking about? This isn't like you. Every time you make a mistake you work your hardest to make it right again. This doesn't sound like you at all, you have always aimed for the impossible taking every chance you got. You never give up. And now you're giving up before even trying because you're scared? You're going to have to take a risk if you want to be happy; we always take a risk by falling in love because that is where we have most to gain."

Determined Naruto shook his head violently, "I can't do that. Not with her! We are friends right now, really good friends. I need to have her in my life. I need her; I can't risk losing her, under no circumstances. Never!

I'd rather stay friends with her for the rest of my life than risking not having her in my life at all. I love her so much, I don't know what I would do if she just walked out of my life.

You don't understand how much I need her, how much I want her. It's crazy I'm scared to be alone with her for too long because I don't know if I can hold onto me. I love her too much to risk making her unhappy in a relationship"

Beating down all of her pain she raised her voice "So instead you just decide to make both of you unhappy? Look you said she felt the same way about you, so she is probably feeling as miserable as you are right now. The way you talk about her…you would never do anything to hurt her. I know that.

You will make her happy and you deserve to be happy too. If you don't tell her you will wonder what could have happened for the rest of your life. We don't regret only what we did, but we also regret what we didn't do" she could see he still had his doubts, his knuckles had turned white and she was hurting because she knew he wouldn't be happy without this woman, even if it would mean breaking her own heart she could not let him do this to himself

"I promise you something, Naruto. Whenever you will start to believe you may have made a mistake in your relationship, whenever you feel like you screwed up, however small it may be, I will do anything I can to make the two of you work it out. No matter how bad it may seems I will do anything I can to help you, I will talk to her and I will talk to you. I promise you I won't let you screw this up."

A smile graced her lips, "It's easy because I know you won't need my help. You will make her incredibly happy. I'm making this promise to you because I'm sure I'll never have to do anything."

Naruto blinked and slowly he found his voice, his blue eyes were penetrating her soul, "So you're saying that no matter how much my girlfriend hates me, no matter what I did, even if it was the most horrible thing you can imagine, I could always come to you as a friend?"

Hinata wasn't sure why this seemed so important to him but she nodded nonetheless.

"You promise it won't matter what will happen between me and my **girlfriend** because you're always going to be my **friend**? Even if she hates me and never wants to see me again, we will still be friends?" Naruto pressed further.

"Yes, I promise. We'll always be friends. I won't let her just leave you, if there is anything I can do to make her stay with you I will"

Suddenly it was like the shadow on his face was lifted "Thanks Hinata, I'll tell her"

The woman forced a smile on her lips; her bravery running out fast now.

_Please leave, just go; go so I can break down, _Hinata begged desperately.

"I'll tell her right now" the old Naruto was back, full of enthusiasm and determination. Hinata stood up and gave him a reassuring smile.

"I love you."

_Please __don't__ do this to me_, Hinata turned around again,

"Yes, just like that, Naruto. I'm sure everything will be fine"

He stared at her in disbelief, "No, I mean I love **you**," he put empathy on the last word.

But Hinata still didn't get it, "Naruto, I'm sure she's is going to get it the first time."

"Yeah, you would think that," Naruto muttered under his breath. "Fine, have it your way."

With one big stride he was in front of her, before she could even say something, he had already pulled her into a kiss. He put every word he just said inside his kiss. It wasn't gentle but it wasn't forceful either; it was just full of passion and love. His arms sneaked around her waist pulling her body to him as close as he could.

The second his lips touched her, every rational thought had fled her mind. It didn't matter how shocked or surprised she was by his action, her brain had just shut down leaving her body in charge. And it reacted to Naruto's kiss immediately; she kissed him back, her hands running through his golden hair pulling him deeper into the kiss.

He left her lips for only seconds before pressing his lips back on her soft ones, over and over again.

She tasted even better than she smelled and after holding back for so long, he didn't want to end it so soon he couldn't get enough of her.

"Do you get it now? I love you, Hinata."

The impact of what just happened; Hinata realized it slowly when the rational part of her brain started functioning again.

"I-I don't…W-What…" Hinata couldn't breathe. She didn't understand what just happened, it was all too much. So she fled to the only escape she had left: She fainted.

Naruto felt her go limb in his arms and he couldn't help but grin "Figures," he said dryly, because it didn't matter. She would wake up soon and then they would talk about it, but for now it was just fine for him to hold her in his arms. Naruto cradled her small body up to his and flopped down onto the couch softly.

…

Spending Saturday night chasing Akamaru was not exactly Karui's most favorite thing to do. She did love the dog almost as much as Kiba but the damn mutt stole the dress she wanted to wear that night and she had to get it back at all costs. Where the hell was Akamaru running to and where was Kiba when you needed him?

"Good boy!" Kiba patted his faithful dog on the back.

Akamaru barked proudly he had led Karui exactly where he was supposed to.

"KIBA! I sure hope you have a very good explanation for this!" the golden eyed woman glared at her boyfriend.

"I have Karui, you won't regret it," he gave her a sly grin when he saw that she had her arms crossed a clear sign she was ready to tick off. He liked her temperamental side a lot.

"I better not" she muttered.

"I have a surprise for you. It's a gift!" he stepped closer and stole a kiss from her lips.

Karui suppressed a small smile.

..

"Oh Kiba" Karui stared at him in disbelief.

This was the best gift she had ever gotten and coming from an Inuzuka it meant so much more.

"She's so cute. What's her name?" the red head cuddled the little puppy closer.

Yep that was right, Kiba had given her a dog. But not just any dog, it was an Inuzuka wolf blood. Karui knew what the meaning behind this was; she was accepted into the family. A part of the pack, as she liked to call it, this was like he had asked her to marry him. This meant so much to her she couldn't put it on words. And the little one was so cute, her fur was soft and golden and oh so beautiful.

Watching the scene gleefully Kiba couldn't help but feel happy about how things worked out between him and Karui. He was still as crazy for her as he was when he first set eyes on her. Well maybe that wasn't right, the first time he had set eyes on her was when they had come to Konoha demanding Sasuke's head, but that didn't count.

Yeah, that was right he loved her. Sure she got him to behave like a complete moron from time to time and no one managed to embarrass him but her. Like she did at Gaara's party but, he mused, in the end it was pretty fun.

Not for Hinata, though.

Then again compared to what Karui had said to Naruto, Hinata could call herself lucky.

Looking back at it that might have been the moment he really fell completely in love with her.

…

_Karui had been in Konoha for about four months and it had been a month since she and Kiba started to have their personal fun. By now she had met most of __Hinata's__ friends and she had to admit they were very nice. Especially considering they __hadn't__ started off too good with all this Sasuke commotion but by now she felt really welcomed in Konoha. There was just one thing that still bugged her and as hard as it was going to be she may should apologize to Naruto. She had been very out of line when they had first met._

"_Hey Naruto wait up__"__ Karui called out when she spotted the blond after looking for him for an hour straight._

_The blond sighed__, "__Can we talk while we walk? I was on my way to __Ichiraku's__ and I __haven't__ had ramen for a week straight__."_

"_Sure how about I treat you to lunch__?"__ she offered._

"_Really, you mean it? Sweet! __Let's__ go__,"__ eagerly Naruto dragged her around._

_Karui laughed loudly, she had been very wrong about him indeed._

_.._

"_Look Naruto__,"__ ten minutes later they were seated in the restaurant and Naruto was already slurping down his first bowl__, "__I wanted to apologize. We __didn't__ exactly start off too good but you never held it against me and __I'm__ very grateful for that__."_

_His blue eyes became serious and Naruto stopped eating__, "__Forget about it Karui. I can actually understand you. If someone did that to my sensei I would have done the same thing. __We're__ good__."_

_Karui was truly astonished, that was a lot easier that she thought._

"_Boss__!"__ a voice behind Karui made her look up__, "__I challenge you right now__."_

_Naruto groaned__, "__Konohamaru not now. __I'm__ eating__"_

_Suddenly the eyes of the boy with the white scarf went wide and he let out a whistle __"__Sorry Boss! I __didn't__ want to interrupt your date. How the hell did you score a babe like that__?"_

_The blue eyed Ninja froze and waited in fear how the very temperamental red head would react to that. He had a very good idea how that would be and it would hurt. Any woman reacted pretty much the same, well any woman but Hinata that was. She would never hurt him intentionally. He could only hope that Karui would only be mad at Konohamaru and not at him._

"_Well thank you but __your 'boss'__ did not score me we are just friends__."_

_Now that was something new!_

"_Hey look what we go here; Akamaru__,"__ Kiba walked in the ramen shop followed by his dog __"__Looks like __we're__ just in time to join the party__,"__ he sat down next to Naruto __"__What brings you here__?"_

"_Well, I wanted to go eat ramen and Karui joined me__"__ Naruto explained._

"_Oi__! Right__ since this __isn't__ a date my challenge still stands__!"__ Konohamaru exclaimed. Naruto gave in and since Karui had company now…_

"_Alright brat __let's__ go and __I'll__ beat you ass to the next week__,"_

"_Is it worth to watch__?"__ Karui leaned over and whispered her question to Kiba_

"_Oh definitely…for me! For you?…I __don't__ think so__"_

_Nodding her head to that Karui made her decision__, "__I want to watch it__."_

…

"_Hey where are you going__?"__ a blonde with her hair in four ponytails made their way over to them._

"_Nothing special, we want to watch the fight between Naruto and that Konohamaru brat__!"__ Karui said._

_Kiba just grinned silently__.__ Naruto was going to get in big trouble and he was first in line to see it. When he saw a familiar __brunette__ across the street he thought __'Hey__ why not share the fun?__'_

"_Neji, wanna watch a fight__?"_

…

_Open mouthed Karui and Temari stared at the boy and the men __"__fighting__".__ Neji opted for a__, "__Tch, typical__."_

_The two women had no idea about the special challenge between Naruto and Konohamaru and their unique __"__fighting style__"._

_Neji and Kiba were both looking forward to what was going to happen next, silently betting which woman was going to get to him first. Naruto had just conquered Konohamaru by using the __'Harem__ no __Jutsu'__ and both woman were trying to comprehend the scene before them._

"_That was__…"__ Karui started and Temari nodded __"__That was …just AWESOME__!"__ she cheered leaving three dumbfounded faces behind as she jumped out of the bushes to congratulate Naruto._

"_Ah thanks__,"__ sheepishly the blond scratched the back of his head unsure of why he __wasn't__ already flying through the air._

_Neji, Kiba and Temari came out looking still rather shocked by the reaction of the Kumo kunoichi._

"_That is such a cool technique__!"__ she praised. She went a little silent when a new idea came to mind._

_Naruto was more than a little confused, usually girls were not exactly happy with the __"__Sexy no Jutsu__".__ Naruto had made it up mostly for fun and to get away with pranks._

"_I have just one technical question__"__ her gold eyes were scrunched together in deep wonder__, "Let's__ say you get yourself a girlfriend, so when you would make a bunshin and then he would do the __'Sexy__ no __Jutsu'__ and then you could have sex with yourself. Would that still be masturbating or would it be called cheating__?"_

_Naruto blinked at least ten times, never, not once in his life had he ever even considered THAT!_

_Neji was having a hard time to keep his mouth from hanging open. He had no intentions to look as stupid as the other two did._

_Before Naruto could answer a new idea had already __popped__ up into __Karui's__ head and as usual she felt the urge to express it loudly __"__And do you even understand all the possibilities you have with the Kage __Bunshin__ and that? This is crazy I mean you could have a threesome with yourself or if you ever manage to land a girl with her too._

_And wow with that Kage __Bunshin__ of yours you can do all kind of crazy stuff in the bedroom and if you divide you stamina right…oh boy you could last forever._

_Or even better with the __Bunshin__ you could have sex with who knows how many women at the same time without them ever finding out! Man that is a multiple orgasm that truly deserves that name! Wow my head is just gonna explode with all those ideas__!"_

_His head was spinning and he felt slightly sick. Naruto never considered any of this. NEVER EVER!_

_He obviously had had no idea of the true potential. This woman was worse that Ero-sennin; even he had never ever said something like that. And up until now Naruto had assumed his former sensei was the biggest pervert ever. Now he felt sorry for misjudging __Jiraiya._

"_This __isn't__ happening! I __didn't__ hear any of that__"__ Neji turned around to leave, repeating the sentences over and over again._

"_I need to go and talk to Shikamaru__,"__ Temari said deep in thoughts._

_Kiba just stood there and stared and the woman he recently started sleeping with and a drowsily looking blond. He so needed to learn the __Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!_

_..._

Kiba snickered to himself, Naruto had avoided Karui for weeks after that incident and Neji was nowhere to be found where Naruto was. As for Temari…Kiba wondered if she had forced Shikamaru to learn the Kage Bunshin or even the 'Sexy no Jutsu'.

"What's so funny?" Karui looked up from the puppy, which she had decided to name her Igi, it meant significance and that was what the puppy was, a symbol for the deep bond with Kiba. "Nothing, just thinking how sexy you look with the dog around, hot stuff."

…

It was so warm and comfortable and it smelled good, where did she buy the bed and the pillows again?

She had to buy more of those pillows. Hinata snuggled deeper into her bed, she hadn't slept so well in a long time, never as far as she remembered. Wait a second did her cushion just move?

Naruto grinned down at the sleeping beauty in his arms. After she had fainted, which he was willing to interpret as a good sign, he and she ended up on the couch. He had cradled her up in his arms and now her head was resting at his chest because he was on his back.

She was slowly waking up again and he had to admit that he could get used to that. More precisely he wanted to have it every day for the rest of his life. Naruto kept on playing with her silky hair, like he had done for the past hour.

Hinata felt so petite and fragile in his arms, did she ever eat because she was too light? He had to talk to her about it.

He watched silently how her tiny nose scrunched up and her body snuggled closer to his. Hinata's small hand twisted his shirt as she stirred. He nestled his nose into her soft and amazing smelling hair to make her wake up gently.

The bluenette blinked a few times, this was weird. She was sure that this was her apartment but why was she lying on the couch. That only happened once months ago, when she must have fell asleep after Naruto left. This time she felt different tough, better and more comfortable and warm and …oh my…Why was she lying on an orange pillow? Come to think of it it was maybe comfortable but why was the orange pillow so hard?

She didn't owe an orange cushion, it would be too obvious. Slowly she raised her head just to meet two pools of ocean deep blue.

Hinata scrambled up from her position on Naruto's wide chest, almost falling down if it wasn't for Naruto's strong arm holding her closer to him. Naruto sat up with her still in his arms, "You should be more careful, Hinata. I don't want you to hurt yourself."

Meanwhile Hinata was still trying to get her thoughts together, all of her confidence and security around him, collected over all these years, falling to pieces. Her head was rivaling a tomato and she just knew that she wouldn't be able to form a coherent sentence. The events leading to her current situation playing in her head… hold on…no, that couldn't be right.

No way, that happened, she must have been daydreaming again.

But why did she faint? And why did it feel so real? And why was Naruto holding her?

The heat was unbearable she had to get up, but his grip was like steel keeping her on his lap. It was a dream, it had to be a dream…just a dream, and it would never be reality.

Hot tears were dwelling up in her eyes and Naruto just wouldn't let her go! She wasn't supposed to cry in front of him! He wasn't supposed to **know**!

"Hinata?" worried Naruto leaned in closer, Hinata was shaking and he could feel her body tensing up. A look in her eyes told him that she was close to cry.

Ok, now he started to panic, what was wrong with her? Was this his fault?

"Hinata? Please tell me what's wrong? Did I…is this…shit Hinata I know I shouldn't have kissed you like that but…I'm sorry, Hinata please don't cry" he begged.

This time he allowed her to slip from his grasp, even if he had to persuade his hands to let her go.

Hinata stumbled down, did Naruto just say they kissed…did that mean it wasn't a dream?

Hinata couldn't breathe…she sank to the floor; Naruto was at her side a second later. His eyes filled with worry and the fear of having made a mistake, the fear of losing her…The woman he was talking about…that was her?

"I…I do-don't under-understand. Wha…I…?" her voice cracked and she felt a single drop sliding down her cheek.

"Hinata, please…don't cry…please don't cry. I'm sorry I really am. I just…damn I'm such an idiot. But you promised, we'll still be friends right? Hinata, tell me that you don't hate me, please" Naruto's voice was shaking as he watched another tear sliding down.

What did he do? Why couldn't he just shut up? But she promised!

Hinata tried to control her breathing, something she had learned when she first tried to get over her stuttering, slowly realization set in.

It was true? He really said he loved her! And he had KISSED her; shocked she brought her fingers to her lips.

_Not a dream, please __don't__ let it be a dream__._

"Why?" It was the only thing she couldn't explain for the life of her. Why would Naruto fall for someone like her? She hadn't even noticed that she had asked it out loud.

"Why what?" Naruto picked the small woman up and they sat back on the couch.

"W-why me? I…I mean there a-are so many woman who are…" she stopped when she saw the expression on his face, a mix of confusion and …anger?

"Stop doing that Hinata. Stop putting yourself down, you are constantly telling others they are strong and they should be who they are but you are always busy making yourself look small. Do you have any idea where I would be right now if it wasn't for you? The only reason I didn't go insane after my battle with Sasuke was you.

You want to know why I love you? I love you because you make me feel at home, I never had a place to go to, but you always make me feel welcomed and when I think of you I can for the first time in my life think of home.

I love you because as long as I remember I tried desperately to impress everyone, to make everyone acknowledge me, but you are the only person I never had to impress. I never needed to act up to get you attention and you listen to me, you take me seriously and you always did.

I love you because with you I feel accepted just the way I am. It makes me feel warm and safe and happy.

I love you because you always say the right things when I need to hear them. You built me up whenever I feel down. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have won against Neji, and if it wasn't for you I would have broken down after I thought Neji had died and if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have survived killing Sasuke.

I love you because you saved me, when no one else could or wanted to. Because I can rely on you no matter what happened.

I love you because I don't have to prove anything to you. No matter what other people tell you about me or anyone really. You believe me, you hear me and you listen to my side." his eyes locked with hers.

The breath she didn't know she was holding escaped her lips. His words were so unbelievable it was hard for her to understand.

Only one thing was important anyway: Naruto loved her!

Unsure Naruto looked at Hinata, had he ruined everything?

He had been a hundred percent sure she felt the same way about him and the only problem he had was the fear of his inability to keep a relationship going without screwing up, but now…

Was it possible her feelings had changed?

His insides started to burn, it was like his heart was breaking into a million pieces. He had to get out of here, to clear his head and think of a way to make all of this go away. To make it better, to find a way that their relationship could be repaired, he couldn't lose her.

The next thought made him feel like he just got knocked his breath out, what if she wanted him to move out?

Keeping it together barely, he lifted his body from the couch, "I…I think I should better go."

"NO!" Hinata shot up before he was even able to take one step. "Don't… don't go."

He looked deeply in her beautiful pale grey eyes. Naruto hesitated, his body screamed at him to get closer to her and shutting down the part of his mind that was afraid to lose her forever, he gave in to his instincts.

When he took a step at her, Hinata could feel his body heat warming her, her breathing coming out in gasps. Slowly his hand caressed her cheek, finding his way to her neck and bringing her closer to him, and for the second time this day Hinata felt all of her rationality leave her brain.

Their lips touched and nothing mattered anymore. Her lips were so soft and plum, desire washed over Naruto and his hand grabbed a handful of her hair, letting the dark blue flow out in between his fingers deepening their kiss, the other hand had been resting on her hip, now his arm went around her waist lifting her up closer to him. She tasted so amazingly good and the smell of her skin and her hair made him crazy. Hinata's arm moved up stroking his arms to his shoulders before she buried them deeply in his hair.

The second they parted Naruto regretted his decision immediately, pressing their lips together once more. Hinata's hand moved down his back softly. The motion made Naruto lose the last bit of sanity he had left. Over and over again he kissed her. His hands roaming over her body, still not feeling like she was close enough. Her legs went around his torso, when his hands found her lower back. Naruto's lips left hers and kissed down to her jaw, causing Hinata to moan quietly.

Breathless he stared at her eyes, his head only as far apart as necessary to see the emotions in her eyes. "Hinata, please, please tell me…I need to…"

"I love you, Naruto."

The feeling he got when she said it while looking into his eyes blasted him away, "Say it again."

She smiled, "I love you."

He peeked on her lips.

"I love you," she repeated for him again.

"I love you," as he lifted her up again.

Naruto pulled her down and in a kiss again. His craving for her fully aflame he stumbled to her bedroom door. The only downside he could find was that while he was kissing her, her mouth couldn't repeat those oh-so-sweet-three words for him.

* * *

******Tell me what you think, any comments, notes, critism, proposals or anything else you have to say are greatly appreciated.**

**By the way. Am I the only person wondering why Hinata get's so many panels in the manga? I have two theories**

**1. Kishi really is going to make Naruhina... (I doubt that, we know him to well for that)**

**2. He finally remembered that the Byakugan is the third big Doujutsu and will give it a power up or explain its history, or something like that.**


	28. Chapter 25

**Well, first of all, thanks to all of you for reviewing, I appreciate it a lot.**

**Next, I never actually planned to get into detail with Hinata and Naruto, but well, since so many of you wanted it... I tried my best. **

**And do me a favor and read what I've written beneath the story.**

**All my thanks to Writer's Convexity for editing, I appreciate it a lot.**

**Also thanks to Noniway, I'm looking forward to it very much.**

**I don't own Naruto.**

* * *

**-24-**

Naruto had tried not to rip off her shirt but in his haste to get her out of it he had torn the hem of it. Not that he cared in the very least and judging by the moans that left her lips Hinata didn't either. The softness of her mattress gave in as he laid her on the big bed with smooth white sheets.

"Don't stop," his voice was hoarse as he whispered hotly into her ear "Don't ever stop."

Their eyes met as he leaned his forehead against hers, his hands running along her rips all the way up to her arm to bind them above her head with one of his big calloused hands.

"I love you, Naruto," Hinata's beautiful lavender tinted eyes were smothered with tenderness and darkened with desire and it was that look in her eyes that drove his lips onto hers with fierceness unknown to him up until now.

Hinata took a shaky breath as his lips dragged down her neck, his hand had long since released hers and her fingers brushed through his hair and down his still in a shirt cladded back. She took a sharp gasp as his knuckles brushed down her rip case and his mouth left kisses on chest, reveling at the softness of the flesh of her breast that wasn't covered by the satin lace of her light orange bra. She panted when he travelled further to leave butterfly kisses on her flat toned stomach, Hinata's hand fisted in his hair and she barely registered that he had opened the button of her pants just to carefully slide them off as she involuntarily lifted her back from the mattress when Naruto's tongue darted to her belly button.

Her body felt like it was set on fire and the sounds forcing their way out of her mouth, the moans that filled the room could no longer be controlled. Naruto smiled against the soft skin of her thigh, as he finally got rid of her pants. Each of his arms came to rest on either side of her head and he looked at Hinata breathlessly. Her face was flushed and her breath was coming out in short huffs. She looked unbelievable beautiful, especially considering that the only thing she was wearing was her delicate underwear in his favorite color and damn he had been right; orange suited her amazingly.

He watched in delight as her cheeks filled with color. "S- stop staring, p- please," she squirmed under him and her hands came up to hide her chest.

The giant grin that overtook his face made her heart pound, "Sorry, but I'm afraid I don't see that happening any time soon." He smirked, "Hinata, you better take your hands down or I will make you," his tone was playful, but his gaze held hers with an intensity that made her shiver.

Hinata started to fidget nervously, she was never very confident about her body and being that exposed to the man she had loved for the most part of her life made her insecurities booming loudly in her head. "I…," she had trouble voicing what she wanted to tell him, maybe because she didn't really know what she wanted to say.

In one swift motion his shirt was removed and revealed his broad chiseled chest, "Hinata look at me," he hovered over her and clear blue eyes met pale grey ones. "I love you. I love you so much; I don't think I'll ever be able to put it into words, so please don't hide from me. You are beautiful…," he kissed her neck tenderly "…and stunning…," his kiss moved closer to her ear "and you're the most amazing and perfect woman I have ever met," his breath tickled her earlobe.

He smirked as he felt her whole body heat up from the blush she was sporting and the goose-bumps that appeared all over her porcelain skin despite the heat her body was emitting.

Hesitantly Hinata removed her arms from her chest and wound them around his neck. Naruto lifted his head, he had been restraining himself for a very long time and his patience was starting to wear thin.

His eyes travelled over her body. The moonlight illuminated her shapely slim body, from her long slender neck over her ample chest and down to her narrowed waist, which merged into wide hips that formed – and he knew that for sure – the nicest ass he had ever laid eyes on, all that beauty ending in endless slender legs.

"So perfect," he breathed out in amazement.

Naruto traced the path his eyes took back up with his fingertips, until he reached the valley of her chest and suddenly all breath left his lungs and he felt like someone just punched him in the guts. Right above her right breast was a faded white scar, it had ran deep and could have killed her easily, and Naruto remembered exactly how she got that one scar. His hand started to shake as he traced the mark, his eyes started to get foggy and Naruto tried to get his breathing under control.

Very slowly his lips descended down to the stab wound and he kissed it cautiously and full of regret. "I'm sorry," he whispered against it.

A delicate hand placed itself onto his cheek, and he followed the gentle nudge until his eyes were on the same level as her pale ones. "This was my choice and I don't regret it in the least. It brought me closer to you."

"I know and I'm glad you saved me, and what you told me that day saved me. It's just that I couldn't protect you and I lost control that day. I could have killed you," his voice was trembling and blue eyes filled with unshed tears.

"But you didn't. Instead you saved all of us. Thank you," Hinata's voice whispered closely to his ear and Naruto buried his face in her neck.

"I love you Hinata," with renewed fierceness his lips found hers again.

"I love you too," her small hands ran up his muscular chest to his shoulders and scratched his back.

A dangerous growl escaped Naruto and his hands hugged her waist to bring her closer to a passionate embrace.

…

"Was about damn time!" hearing Kiba's words Naruto sighed.

That was about the reaction everyone had had so far after learning that he and Hinata were dating.

Surprisingly all of their friends had managed to gather to hear Naruto's proud announcement. The café located in a nice park near a water fountain are since the sun was shining brightly upon Konoha all of them were sitting outside.

"At least now we don't have to fix you up, too," Karui said happily. She took her golden sunglasses off to and put them atop of her head to keep her hair from falling in her face. The deep red locks fell freely over her naked shoulders, almost but not quite reaching the hem of her white sundress.

"What do you mean, too?" Neji frowned, his arm around Tenten's shoulders. Said girl grinned at the question and took a bite of her vanilla flavored ice cream.

"Nothing, she means nothing!" Kiba shot his girlfriend a warning look. As if it wasn't hot enough, Karui just had to poke the sleeping lion, Kiba sweat-dropped and felt the sudden urge to cool himself down by taking off his brown shirt.

Suspiciously Neji looked at him, before turning back to the newest couple.

"So you already thought about how you will tell your Father, Hinata?" he grinned maliciously.

"You are enjoying this to no end, aren't you?" Naruto groaned and pulled Hinata closer. Today he had let go of his trademark orange shirt and instead opted for a dark blue shirt that referring to Hinata made his eyes sparkle, combined with his black shorts he had to admit that today he looked rather dashing.

"He's not that bad. Don't worry Naruto, he already likes you," Hinata tried to calm him and softly rubbed her thumb over his hand.

"Maybe but that was BEFORE you started defiling his precious and previously innocent daughter," Kiba remarked, relishing the color on Hinata's face.

"Shut it, dog boy!" Naruto put a protective arm around her small frame. He still wasn't sure whether he should love the warm weather that had forced his beautiful girlfriend out of her layers of clothes and into a pair of black shorts and a simple egg-plant colored tank top, or if he should curse the heath because it seemed like the entire male population was staring at **his** Hinata like she was a piece of meat.

"Do you know what this means?" Karin's eyes went big and she bubbled with excitement, "I'm Naruto's cousin but personally I like to think of myself as his sister and when he and Hinata will marry, that will practically mean I'm your sister in law. We will be a big family!" she jumped up and pulled Hinata into a violent hug knocking the chair over in the process and they fell to the ground.

Naruto would have helped her but Lee, being Karin's boyfriend seemed to share her opinion and had Naruto engulfed in a hug with, "We are brothers now."

This was the one and only time where Naruto missed Lee's green jumpsuit, because that would have meant less direct skin contact. But unfortunately this was the one day; Lee wore his equally green undershirt and matching spandex short that stopped at mid-thigh.

Neji grinned gleefully and took a sip of victory from his ice tea. Secretly glad he wasn't the one getting jumped by his former teammate.

"You know Lee," Naruto managed to press out, "Neji is Hinata's cousin, so…"

Now it was Naruto's turn to grin at Neji's fruitless attempt to stop Lee from embracing him.

"I'm so glad not to be a Hyuga right now," Temari winked at her boyfriend.

"No kidding," Shikamaru agreed.

"So when are you leaving for Suna?" she asked out loud as she leaned back into the soft pillows of the wooden chair.

According to the peace treaty the Hokage had to visit each of the other countries once a year to ensure stability. Tsunade had already been to Kiri and she had visited Iwagakure. That left Naruto with Kumo and Suna. Since he was good friends with Gaara and Hinata would love to see her sister, Temari had assumed he was going to Suna first. Besides that, she was sure Naruto wanted to see Sakura again.

"Oh, I'm leaving next week with Nata," he replied, "I can't wait actually. That reminds me, Shikamaru, you will have to take over the Hokage Office!"

Shikamaru's head dropped and he mumbled something what sounded suspiciously like, "what a drag".

Hinata smiled but she couldn't help the worry that crept his way into her eyes.

…

_Hanabi and Hinata had a brisk correspondence and of course Hanabi was not able to hide her growing feelings for the Kazekage. This caused Hinata to worry about her sister; she didn't want her sister to have her heart broken because she fell for someone who was out of reach. Hinata knew all too well what that felt like._

_But when her sister wrote her that Gaara reciprocated her feelings, Hinata was torn between happiness for her sister and concern. She had written back immediately stating that Hanabi and Gaara were to do anything they could to keep their relationship a secret for now. Oh, and congratulations._

…

She was glad, that she was able to visit her sister soon. It was of utter importance that she talked to Hanabi as soon as possible.

"Hey, Nata," her lavender orbs met with concerned blue ones, "you ok?"

She blushed at his closeness and nodded shyly, "Yes, don't worry, Naruto"

…

A loud cheer erupted from Hanabi's throat; she didn't even care to read the rest of the letter. Instead she opted to jump from her chair with arms high in the air. Concerned from the sudden disruption of the peace and quietness of the Kazekage building Gaara appeared in the doorframe.

"Is everything alright, Hyuga-san?"

"Better than alright, everything is just perfect," she smiled brightly at him.

The next thing Gaara knew that he was almost pushed into the wall, by a blur of happy pink, "Oh boy, did you read the letter? Did they tell you?"

Sakura may have been out of breath, but that didn't stop her from squealing and talking at a pace, that kept her from taking said breath.

"Yes! They finally managed to figure it out," Hanabi was most certainly not a physical person, so it had to be something really amazing, since she grabbed Sakura and together they danced while hugging.

Loudly the Kazekage cleared his throat, "Could someone may let me know what is going on?"

"Naruto and Hinata are finally going out with each other!" two voices answered him simultaneously.

"I can't believe how long they danced around each other," Sakura exclaimed.

"I know and I even put together a whole photo album of the two of them," Hanabi flopped back into her office chair, "and its only purpose was that I could give it to the idiot with the words 'Took You Long Enough'."

Well, Gaara deducted sharply, it looked like he was no longer needed.

…

With a sigh Hanabi dropped the letter Hinata wrote to her, the rest of the letter had unfortunately not been as pleasant as it had started. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Why would Hinata be asking how serious Gaara and her were or to keep their relationship a secret?

Slowly an idea manifested itself in Hanabi's head and she groaned. Why didn't she think of that before?

And what was she supposed to do now? She couldn't just go to Gaara and say, "Hi by the way how serious is our relationship? Are we just casually seeing each other or are you planning to marry me?"

That was out of the question. They weren't even dating that long.

Hanabi was not willing to make a fool out of herself. What if Gaara wasn't serious at all? What if…?

Another groan made its way past her lips.

…

Confused Gaara shot a glance at his girlfriend. For the past week Hanabi had been tense and somewhat distant. He was used to her distant attitude during official business, where he was Kazekage-sama and she was Hyuga-san, but lately she had been weird around him all the time.

Was she going to break up with him? Gaara wasn't sure what kind of feeling was settling inside his stomach at the thought but judging from past experience: fear, desperation and anger.

She couldn't just break up with him, he wouldn't allow that. She couldn't leave him. His eyes flashed with fury.

Hanabi wiggled on the couch next to Gaara. She hated how the last week had been, but her sister was supposed to arrive within the next days and she wanted to talk to Hinata first. On the other hand was she starting to get worried that her relationship to Gaara would suffer if she kept acting like this.

It was just…What if he wasn't as serious as she was? She didn't want to lose him, because he thought she was pressuring him to commit to her. She sighed and leaned her head on Gaara's shoulders, only to find them unusually tense.

Surprised she looked up to him, "What's wrong Gaara?"

He didn't answer at first, "Gaara?"

"The better question is: What is wrong with you?" his voice was quiet and calm.

Too quiet and too calm, something was terribly wrong, Hanabi realized.

"Gaara wha…?" she gasped when she felt him grab her roughly. And the next time she blinked he had her trapped underneath him.

"What is wrong with me? Why don't you tell me what is wrong with you?" he snarled and his grip tightened, "The last weeks you have been doing nothing than avoiding me and basically tried everything to not have spent time with me."

Hanabi bit her lips, she had known this would happen and now he would break up with her, "Gaara please, you're hurting me," she said as tears swelled up in her eyes from the panic of losing him.

His own sear green eyes widen and he let go off her like she just burned him, "I apologize, that was out of line. I will see you tomorrow, Hyuga-san," swiftly he made his way to the door.

"No, Gaara wait," Hanabi hurried after him, "let me explain," she grabbed his hand and looked at him pleadingly.

Gaara could see the fear in her eyes, and he interpreted it the very wrong way. He had made her scared of him, he averted his eyes. Looking at her right now, was something that was too much for him.

His voice was like ice, "I don't see any reason to stay. Again I apologize for my behavior but I have to make my leave now."

"NO! No, Gaara please," she flung her arms around his neck and jumped into his arms, "no, please don't go. Don't leave me, please. You have to let me explain."

She was shaking from the tears that were rolling down her cheeks, her usual cool and composed posture falling apart completely as she clung onto him.

"Hanabi," his voice was laced with confusion but he also had become visible softer at seeing her so distraught.

"Don't go, please, please," she cried into his shoulders.

"Shh, Hanabi, I'm not leaving," he told her.

Gaara wasn't sure what to do, but Hanabi did not want to go, so maybe not everything was lost. His arms went around her waist and he hugged her close while stroking her hair.

Slowly Hanabi calmed down in his arms, her hiccups ceased and she started to breath evenly. Relieved he let go of her so that he could look into her eyes

"Are you feeling better?"

"No," Hanabi answered immediately, "not until we talked"

She took his hand and led him back to the couch.

* * *

**Well, this story is now marked as complete, but only the first part is.**** There will be a second part that will continue where this story left off.  
**

**However I have a few more ideas, so what I would like you to do is to tell me which story I should write first. Here are the possibilities.**

**Continuation: Naruto Gaiko**

**including: **

**- Sakura in Kankuro's bed**

** - The Kages meet their girlfriends father**

**- Three diplomatic problems**

**- Orochimaru's plan revealed**

**- Sasuke's true mission revealed**

**- the death of a dear friend**

**- how Neji survived the war**

**- Lee proposing**

**- and more**

**- and whatever you suggest!**

**AU- Story: A little rough around the edges**

**Namikaze Naruto could not be happier, he is a successfull football player, has more money than he can spent and the most beatiful women in the world would take him in a heartbeat. If only there wasn't his medlesome mother, who decided that her and her husband waited long enough for that grandchild, isn't it lucky that her lovely red-headed nice and her also red-headed best friend have a dating agency?**

**Hyuga centred story: True Purpose**

**The Cursed Seal was never made to surpress the branch family instead it was designed to break the Hyuga free, a secret long forgotten. Neji, Hinata and Hanabi are about to discover what the Byakugan is really capable of.**

**Well, whaterever get's the most response will be done first. The pairings will stay the same unless you can convice me otherwise. Also I'm open to all kind of request, you have an idea for a scence or a conversation or whatever that will fit into one of them, let me know.**

**Next thing I'll publish will be a Oneshot of Hanabi and Gaara.**

**Tell me what you think.**


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